Auburn Union could face bankruptcy
Officials, teachers say unfortunately on money and not kids
Bankruptcy, furlough days, and large class sizes could be the future of Auburn Union schools. Starting in 2010, Auburn Union teachers will likely get a five-day vacation they don’t really want. And for the next three years, officials said they are going to have to take even more drastic cuts to keep the school district from declaring bankruptcy.
‘Not about kids’ In a report recently presented at an November board meeting, Doug Crancer, assistant superintendent of business and facilities, predicted the district’s financial future and wrote that it didn’t look like it will meet its financial obligations two years from now. In fact, the district is facing the possibility of declaring bankruptcy, which means the state will then come in and take over operations, Schuetz said. In attempts to maintain the district’s finances, officials said they are looking at increasing class size, cutting music and physical education programs and eliminating staff. Recently, the Auburn Union Teachers Association’s offered to take 10 furlough days over the next two school years. The school board is expected to vote on the matter at its Dec. 9 meeting, according to Michele Schuetz, superintendent of Auburn Union schools. The furlough days will amount to a 2.7 percent cut to teacher salaries each year, according to Steve Schaffer, co-president of the association and E.V. Cain Middle School science teacher. “We’ll take five even though we’re not happy and haven’t had raises in a long time,” Schaffer said. Teacher John Garcia said morale is low among teachers as they face those cuts. Garcia, who teaches 36 fifth-grade students at Skyridge School, said losing programs such as physical education would leave no time for teachers to plan during the day in addition to denying students a chance to get some much needed activity. Garcia said he feels the cuts are “about dollars and not about kids.” Schuetz said she agrees. “Because of the crisis we’re experiencing with the budget we’ve had to actually eliminate things we know are good for kids and good for staff and promote student achievement,” Schuetz said. “The state has cut all the extra money that would provide for those programs and we have had to focus more on the budget in order to keep the district out of bankruptcy.”
More cuts to come Schaffer said initially the school board asked the teachers to take a 12 percent cut. Teachers fought that and settled on the 2.7 percent decrease in pay over two years, which amounts to a total of 5.4 percent cut through 10 furlough days. Two of the furlough days will be in-service days for teachers. The remaining eight will be school days, which means students will have eight less days of class for the next two years. Schaffer said teachers felt the offer of five furlough days per year was fair because it was one of the state’s suggestions as to how to remedy the loss of funding. However, he said teachers and union reps are bracing themselves for an upcoming meeting with the district’s negotiations counsel in January to start mulling over the next contract deal and what cuts might be forthcoming. “We’re maxed out,” Schaffer said. “I’m positive we’re not going to be able to take any more hits next year.” District officials agree. Schuetz said the district cut $1.5 million last February, made additional cuts in June and had its general-purpose fund lose 20 percent in state funding. Add in that fact that Auburn Union is a declining-enrollment district and Schuetz and Crancer said it’s all too possible that the district could declare bankruptcy in three years. “We need about $900,000 ongoing over the next two years to keep out of bankruptcy,” Schuetz said. Schuetz said all extra programs have been cut and now it’s down to positions and people. Confidential staff and administration have agreed to take five furlough days for 2009-10 and five furlough days in 2010-2011. Crancer estimated that administrators would take between $4,000 and $6,000 less a year home out of their gross salary, which is pay before taxes and retirement contributions are taken out. Teachers taking 10 furlough days over the next two years will save the district about $390,000, Crancer said. Additional cuts will have to be made, Schuetz said.
Trying to focus on the future As the district faces a $1.3 million deficit three years from now and the possibility of declaring bankruptcy, Schuetz said there are some positive things to focus on. She said the district is starting its own home-school and pre-kindergarten programs as a way to bring students into the district. Crancer added that the district is now able to sell an eight-acre $450,000 parcel of land that previous laws prevented it from selling. Ultimately, Schuetz said in these difficult times when morale is low, the district can only encourage staff as best as it can. “We have many staff who are also experiencing personal financial challenges because of this climate,” Schuetz said. “One thing we always want to remember is we have wonderful, wonderful employees here trying to the best for students.” Jenifer Gee can be reached at jeniferg@goldcountrymedia.com.
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$4,000 and $6000 before taxes and deductions is although huge is hopefully not the same as deducting $4000 and $6000 from take home pay. The lower the salary the more it will affect the take home pay. By the way how much property and unused assets are there in the district???
Let's face it, we are in very tough economic times. I wonder how much complaining and criticism took place during the Great Depression, I don't mean it as a slam, just curious.
Let's do everything we can to stop real estate development and growth that the schools depend on for their revenue steam. Let's stop the big box stores in the Auburn Union District so the schools can't use the sales tax revenue. Let's do everything we can to stop job growth so parents can not support schools. Let's save the salmon.
Unfortunately the school district find themselves in this situation due to prior board members such as Sandy Amara and Jim Holmes who both had a feel good liberal policies which allowed for out of control spending and littlefiscal responsibility. There inability to say "NO" and take a strong stand has led to where the district find themselves today. Board members caved to teachers demands made promises with little regards for the fiscal strength of the district. Leaving the problem for future board members and and unfortunately the victims for their decisions the students and the parents have been left to figure out the mess. The board trying to cut corners hired Ms. Schutz although a nice lady but she had very little experience managing a district and it s finances. Make no mistake of who is to blame for this MESS , the board now faces. Just look in the past and the irresponsible spending and borrowing the board members did from the future. Well now its time to pay the piper.
Let's look at how the money is being spent. The need of the many (students) must at some point outweigh the needs of the few (severely handicapped students).
To spend millions of dollars on students which will not be productive members of our workforce is foolish. Making their lives as productive and comfortable as possible is only humane but to spend money to pretend a student which is all but in a vegetative state is "graduating" school is crazy. To spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for glorified babysitters to spend entire days one-on-one with "handicapped" behavior problems is ludicrous
Of course, no one will "pick on" this sacred cow.
The State Department of Education and the State Legislature determine how local school boards spend their money.
ariemay you just did. The costs of educating special needs children has risen a lot but so have the rates of those children receiving services. Just look at the increase in children diagnosed with Autism or some other spectrum disorder (ADD & ADHD are on spectrum too), and I don't think these kids are classified as "vegetative" as you so "kindly" term it. You need to go read the AUSD budget and research a bit.
AUSDs problems stem from declining enrollment and the HUGE debt they carry for a district their size. They were struggling before the tax revenues took a dive and the state cut funding. They built a school before it was needed (see debt) and then declining enrollment set in.
Closing Alta Vista was suppose to save AUSD, but it just pushed more kids out of the district, and delayed closure of more schools. No surprise here.
Its the history of the management (admin & board) that got them where they are today. Thats why some districts have more flexibility and some don't.
"Closing Alta Vista was suppose to save AUSD, but it just pushed more kids out of the district, and delayed closure of more schools. No surprise here."
I thought it wasnt closed, there are still classes there, it became a boot camp type school? If it were truly closed, why wasnt the property sold off and the money put towards the district...
It was closed. Ask the district if you want to know details. I think they're leasing the space to county.
How is it that the Placer County Office of Education can afford not one, but two flat screen TVs to serve as bulletin boards at the front desk? Why is it that their offices contain cherry wood furniture and late model computers while our school computer labs use hand-me-down computers that can’t run anything beyond a word program without grinding to a halt? Categorical funds my friends. Our vast treasure that we set aside for education gets allocated to specific uses. We are obligated to spend millions on upgrading the buildings of schools that a slated to be closed. Rather than spend $10,000 on a state of the art computer lab, schools are forced to install additional ramps and handrails because the money can only be used for safety. The general funds can be used for anything that the schools need, but that is the fund that is shrinking while the categorical funds are growing.
For every dollar that we invest in education, by the time that it gets to the classroom, only pennies remain. Those pennies pay for teachers and classroom supplies. The rest goes to pay the salaries and office supplies at district, county, and state levels.
Once upon a time, there was a community that picked one of their smartest to teach the community’s children under the shade of the apple tree. That once great idea has bloated into a multi-layered bureaucracy housed in million dollar buildings looking over the shoulder of the teacher and taking a lion’s share of the budget to do it.
Acadian, there's alot of truth in what you write. Talk about needed reform. But let's not minimize the poor fiscal decisions of AUSD in the past that has exacerbated the current funding crisis.
No one mentioned the benefits of getting rid of the teachers union. Cutting pensions and getting fringe benefits in line to match that of the private sector will save more money that any bake sale can raise.
"It was closed. Ask the district if you want to know details. I think they're leasing the space to county."
Thanks I didnt know the county was running a school there.
"No one mentioned the benefits of getting rid of the teachers union. Cutting pensions and getting fringe benefits in line to match that of the private sector will save more money that any bake sale can raise."
If the district does a real BK, all contracts will be void. And yes there should be parity with the private sector...
placerlover, what benefit will come of eliminating the teachers union? Without them, we would be making minimum wage while the district continues to complain about being broke. What fringe benefits are you referring to? Are you justifying $1000 plasma screen TVs to announce a meeting 10 feet from the front desk over pensions for teachers?
keepingupdated, that is a good point and one that we have brought up with them on several occasions. It appears that some board members would rather send some of our teachers into bankruptcy rather than the district. The district has been approved for a low interest loan, but declined to accept it. Their credit rating is also rather high for an organization that claims to be out of money. Do you think a bank would lend money to a school district that will go bankrupt in two years? I don’t think so.
Based on this years proposed budget, AUESD Teachers are paid to work 180 days a year (before sick and personal days), Have 176 "student contact days" (which includes half days) and 4 prep/ training days
365 days a year leaves about 250 days most non teachers work before vacation. Average salary and benefits AUESD above $65,000/year = $361 / work Day = approx $45/hour based on 8 Hour Day ($361 / day is equal to over 90,000 for a standard work year. Plus thanks to tenure if they do not perform we are still stuck with them.
45% of the budget is certified salary and benefits, 7 percent administration, 11% classified which this does not include the 18% benefit cost. over 80% of budget is salary Well over 50% of the money goes to to Certified salaries and benefits at AUESD
State average is 40% cert Salaries, at best AUESD is 5% above that, 5.8 % is avg for administration , AUESD is 1.2% above
As far as selling Alta Vista, the state has made that very difficult to do thanks to the Los Angeles Unified School District. A while back they sold off some surplus property just before they had a big boost in enrollment and was forced to buy land at a premium price to build new schools. The best option for school districts is to rent out the campus to a private school or business. Undeveloped surplus land can be sold with fewer restrictions. The school district owned prime real estate right in the heart of Auburn but chose to sell it to the city at a fraction of the value so the city could build a park.
Excellent. And you are assuming that they work 8 hours a day. Generous.
Acadian: Please don't be so dramatic. Minimum wage is better than unemployment.
According to ED-Join at http://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us, the average salary for a teacher at the AUESD is $62,160. The state average for elementary schools is $65,265. Out of that salary, the average employee contribution for benefits is $7,764. The average years of teaching experience is 19.6 years of which all but one teacher has the proper credentials to teach what they are assigned to teach. In order to reach the median salary, a teacher must have a 75 college units above a degree and 15 years experience on the job. A new teacher who has a four year degree plus a fifth year of education courses equaling 15 college units plus the proper teaching credential makes $40, 401.
Bend Over Again(what a cute name) would lead you to believe that teachers are overpaid. I suppose that is why we all drive Hummers to work and people are flocking to universities to pursue careers in teaching.
The service being rendered by the school district is education. The people rendering that service are the teachers. By Mr. Again's own numbers, only 45% of the total budget goes to the people actually providing the service.
Any you are being heartless, placerlover.
Well one could also make the argument that teachers only work 9 months a year, the rest of us work 12, so the average salary is pretty good for actual days worked and those of us with degrees have spent quite a bit of money on education, i dont know how much private industry pays their teachers but there should be parity.
Auburnite,
I have done a lot of things for a living. Some of them good and some of them I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Teaching is my most recent and, hopefully, my last career. Without becoming overly dramatic, allow me to give you my perspective of teaching.
For someone who is good at it, it is a dream job. I rush to work every day and I linger long after the children leave. I have been doing this for 11 years and I still get excited about what I will be teaching every day. Sure there are bad days, but most are good. I am well aware of what others have to go through to earn a paycheck and the difficulty of keeping those jobs in the current economy. I am not trying to place myself and my profession in competition with anyone. We all work hard. We all want to provide a comfortable life for ourselves and our families. And we all wanted to be treated fairly.
I don’t think that the district is being fair. They have made some poor decisions long before the current recession. The sale of our property to the city of Auburn for far below market value when the market was hot was one of them. Delaying the closure of Alta Vista, creating a k-8 at that school, and moving it to Skyridge were two more decisions that cost the district at least a million dollars.
Now the district is saying that they will go under soon and that the teachers, staff, and administrators of the district must sacrifice so that the superintendent and the school board may keep their jobs.
Acadian thanks for the perspective, and one has to remember life is not fair, and we are in a recession for a reason. One cannot continue on operating status quo, when there is no ability to maintain so called status quo, no matter who is to blame. Its surviving, scaling down, and lving in supportable reality instead of an idealstic version of what was the past. Its going to be a long haul before we are out of the woods...
The numbers I was using came directy from AUESD, Acadian your number does not include the Districts contibution to Teacher benefits Well over 50 percent of the budget goes to teachers salaries & benefits. Dear AUESD I would like to work for your school district, I went to college to become a teacher, I fully understand what the pay is, but I know once I take the job and get tenure I can then complain about how low my pay is and how over worked I am. I do know that I will likely show up about 7:45 and beat most of the buses out of the parking lot, I will not make myself available for parents or students after school because I don't have to, I understand I will have a lunch brake and a prep period every day & I will have the kids grade their own papers during class time.
Schools now face the same problems the US Automakers are with their unions & what they have been able to get away with, not to mention State & Federal unfunded mandates. T he good times are over for as a long time, the money tree has lost it's leaves, the wood has been burnt & now we have to find a way to feed the fire. Yes Acadian as I mentioned earlier, previous boards did make big mistakes long before this current recession & the teachers have been enjoying them, layoffs, furloughs & other cuts are now the results of their cowardly caving to teacher pressure, and their liberal fiscal leanings.
Wow..BenoverAgain, you really dislike teachers. By the way, did you mean lunch "break" instead of "brake"? You a teacher, ha!
Schools are not broke because teachers are paid too much. Most Auburn Union teachers pay most of their own health benefits (700 per month), retirement (400+ per month), union deduction (80-90 per month) plus State and federal taxes/medicare. After all of these deductions plus the 4-day furlough and pay cuts coming up, they will not make enough to pay their mortgages let alone food, gas and bills.
Our kids' teachers work hard. They take home papers to grade nightly. Even if they have the kids grade some papers in class, they still have a lot more to grade. They also have to plan and prepare lessons. For elementary and science/elective teachers, this means getting supplies together. They often buy their own supplies. They also often provide snacks to kids out of their own pocket.
I don't know who you think you are by lumping all teachers into one group of lazy teachers. It is pretty much impossible to be lazy as a teacher because most are not. The lazy ones stick out and are ostracized by the rest who are working their tails off. Many coach and do extracurricular activities with kids. They spend hours planning day and overnight field trips. They don't have to!!! They do it because they care about providing a good education for kids. Get a clue before you post Bendoverbackwards...you have NO idea what it takes to teach.
Also, for all of you who read these comments: the State and county offices of education are redundant. The county offices of education in California should be dismantled completely and the State office of education should be cut as much as possible. The fat in education is located there not at the school districts.
Bendoveragain, The numbers that I am using are the numbers that the district reported to the state. Were they giving CDE incorrect numbers?
Speaking of tenure, let’s clear up a few rumors about it. Tenure was instituted to protect college professors from being fired over teaching controversial subjects. Think of John Scopes and the Monkey Trials. It does not protect a teacher from poor performance. If the state would eliminate tenure, I would cheer the loudest. Seniority is a different matter. But nearly every employer tracks and uses seniority so I don’t see why teacher seniority would be an issue. Even if there is no tenure, school districts would still need to obey labor laws when moving to terminate an employee.
Check your own post. You are the one who stated that 45% of the total budget goes to salary AND benefits. Let’s be fair here. If the district is paying half of the benefit cost, who is paying the other half? A first year teacher making $40, 401 has $7,764 in benefit costs taken out. That leaves $32,637 of which taxes, retirement, and dues are taken out. Now the district wants to create a lower column to start teachers at somewhere around 15% lower than that. Auburnite tells me that life is unfair. That is true for cowards who don’t stand up for themselves when the liars, cheats, and thieves are plying their trade.
I have to agree with Acadian. The PCOE wastes a lot of money. Those two flat screens he referred to, along with new carpeting and new computers were installed just after another financial crisis had ended. I'm sorry but blaming teachers for the state of our education is highly unfair. Are they perfect and beyond reproach? No and neither is anyone else.
California's education system is broken, it is fragmented and is wasteful but don't look at the classroom to find savings, they basically are at the bottom of the totem pole and get what's left.
Do away with the redundancy, put the money into education and not plush offices for bureaucrats and we will have solved the problem.
I have never been involved in education as a job, but having had six children go through out public schools made me aware of the problems faced by those on the front lines, the teachers and of course to a certain extent, depending on their involvement on their children's education, the parents.
I guess I can sum up my beliefs by saying that I have met more dedicated teachers than Administrators.
Consolidate the small districts.
One problem is the gentrification of this part of the county. MV is a prime example of how old folks and other NIBBYs that vote down all bond measures for schools and prevent affordable housing. They don't notice 'till their kids quit coming home as much. Young people can't afford to live here and it is sad that sounds on the playgrounds are diminishing.
The object is to not bring the public sector down by cutting teachers benefits. No, we should bring everyone in the private sector up to those standards.
Acadian... I for one support your decision to teach... it is not a career for just anyone... Sorry to see some hate pointed toward teachers... I agree they are not over paid... it is where the rubber meets the road. Not sure I would ever had the passion to teach! With the state facing billions to cut again... at some point the fat will get rooted out!
Thanks Lonewolf. Everyone will need to pitch in, teachers included. That's why we have agreed to loose 10 days of pay over two years. I'm not afraid to work and I've already taken on extra jobs in anticipation of this happening. Like you say, they need to shake some of the branches on the top part of the tree for a while.
Who's this ding dong John Garcia. Garcia said he feels the cuts are “about dollars and not about kids.”
No duh. John.
What about your salary? Is that about dollars or about kids?
Lets make this "about kids" not dollars. Lets just not pay all the teachers and staff and the budget problems will be solved. Just because you're having a furlough day doesn't mean you cant show up and teach. Same for PE and band. Feel free to stay late and teach those subjects....its about the kids not dollars right?
We blame everyone but ourselves, and we allow those with agendas to drive everything over the cliff. In a system that has no rewards for excellence, we only find agenda. There is little real discourse, and only detached roles. Administration 'experts' are not interested or unable to engage in meaningful innovation. In spite of this sick environment, there are pockets of excellence. I can only hope for the day when excellence and innovation is encouraged and rewarded. Hope and change of the right kind, not a poorly conceived, poorly received no-child-left-behind set of mandates, but meaningful change where we all can be partners is something that makes everyone want to join our district. It is never too late to chase a dream, anyone care to join me?