Understanding the Budget

By Brian Block

A Brief Primer on how schools are funded, and the hard choices that need to be made together with the community

It is clear that we have a budget problem. No one wants to overcrowd classrooms and underpay staff, but our school district has been doing it. Many Middle School and High School classes are packed, our teachers have not had a pay raise in 3 years, our classified staff has had no raise in 3 years, part-time staff members are given 19 hour shifts to avoid providing them benefit options at 20 hours. CCUSD is public institution, not a private business. When we don't provide for our students and staff, we only hurt our own community!

The budgeting process is not difficult to understand; however the choices that must be made are hard. Propositions 13, 98 and 111 changed the way that schools can get money. Essentially, the state collect tax dollars and then redistributes them to the school districts. Very little of our property tax revenue go directly to the district. This state control makes it difficult for a local school district to control the amount of funding that it can give to school programs. The basic ways to fund a school district are as follows:

ADA (Average Daily Attendance): The average daily attendance at the school is the primary way a school gets funds. Every day that a child attends, the school gets money from the state. If the child is absent, or not in school for any reason, the school does not receive money.

School Overcrowding+ Needless to say, if obtaining money were the only goal of a school district, administrators would just keep placing students in classrooms to pay the bills. It is now clear that our administrators have been stuffing the schools at the Middle School and High School level with permit students from outside Culver City for at least the past three years. Even a cursory look at, due to the relatively stable 5th Grade population in our schools over the past few years, and the ballooning 6th grade and Middle School populations have proven this. Unfortunately, this increase in immediate funding results in a decrease in teacher and student moral, a decrease in student learning, traffic increases, and other problems when children from outside our neighborhood are secretly placed in our schools.

Less Expensive Staff- Another way to deal with the budget crisis is to hire less expensive staff. Even though are students are better served by more experienced teachers, the school district has been replacing the experienced teachers who leave (over 21 this year alone) with teachers on preliminary credentials or with little experience. While it creates an immediate budget gain, the overall loss in experience is devastating. In essence, or children are teaching our teachers, not the other way around. The most recent audited budget shows that the salaries for full time teachers actually DECREASED, while the budget for temporary teachers increased.

This practice is not limited to our teaching staff. Our classified staff, many of whom live in Culver City, have also not received pay increases for a number of years. Additionally, the administrators have many classified personnel work for just under twenty hours, so they do not have to offer them a buy-in package for benefits like health insurance.

Loans/Bonds: A school district may also take out loans or bonds. However, between 1997 and 1999, this administration and board (Mr. Russell, Mr. Bubar and Ms. Wolkowitz were on the board at the time, and Ms. McGaughey was superintendent) took out over 44 million dollars in long-term debt. This is an incredibly large amount for a district with an annual budget of around 38 million dollars. It is doubtful that any more debt should be incurred any time in the near future.

Grants: Grant money is probably the best way to obtain additional funds. If done properly, grant money can supplement specific or general projects in a school district, and may lead to some flexibility in distributing other funds. Rather than pay for a public relations expert or spin-doctor, finding a good fundraiser to work in conjunction with CCEF is probably the best way to obtain additional income. Federal, State, Foundation, Business, and Individuals are all sources of grant monies. Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley, where I teach, has received approximately two million dollars in grant monies over the past three years. If my school of approximately 5,000 students can raise that much, surely we can increase the amount of CCEF money that the school receives.

Rental Property: A school district may raise money through renting or selling property. Currently, CCUSD rents out two schools to help cover costs.

Lottery Money: The lottery is a source of income as well. Recently, due to the new Megamillions Lottery game, it was reported at a Board Meeting that the district received $580,000 in unexpected lottery funds. If you missed this, it was because the board thought it was not necessary to record Mr. El Fattal's statement on Board Meeting minutes.

Property Taxes: The last resort, in order to raise property taxes a two-thirds majority vote must be achieved under Proposition 13. It is clear that this is not an option unless all other sources are realistically attempted and exhausted.

The Tough Decision As you can see, there are no easy ways to raise money (except maybe grants). The big problem that I, and many Culver City residents have is with the PROCESS of budgeting. Why does the Assistant Superintendent El Fattal appear to change the numbers of an "accounting error" on a weekly basis? Why is the amount of Megamillions dollars not mentioned in the minutes of a meeting? Why can't the public get accurate figures of the amount of permit students in each grade level, or at each school? Almost invariably, when these questions are asked, when someone from the public questions the decisions of the administration or the board, they are told "You don't realize...or there's misinformation...or you don't understand completely... or who knows what it's going to be in four years...or who knows what they're going to do." The big problem is, IT IS THE BOARD'S JOB TO INFORM US, and they just aren't doing it.

So what can be done? The starting point is to follow the Brown act and truly get all the information out to the public. This is why the board is suffering from a lack of trust, and no public relations hire will help that. If the board is open, and believed to be honest, people will accept the hard solutions, and when given complete information, may be able to offer better ones.