|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The San Ramon Valley Unified School District’s Board of Education is set to debate how to implement at least $10 million in reduced spending in the next academic year in order to balance the district’s budget in the wake of a recently approved agreement with unionized teachers.
The trustees voted unanimously at their most recent regular meeting on Feb. 20 to approve an agreement with the San Ramon Valley Education Association that will see teachers in the union receive an ongoing 6% salary increase retroactive to July 2023 as well as a 1% one-time payout, with those and other provisions of the agreement costing the district an additional $13.8 million compared with the previous year.
“The District states this agreement will be funded by assigned balances, one-time restricted reserve funds, and on-going reductions in the current year,” Daniela Parasidis, the Contra Costa County Office of Education’s deputy superintendent of business and administrative services, wrote in a letter to SRVUSD Superintendent John Malloy evaluating the proposed agreement on Feb. 15.
“In addition, the District commits to adopting a resolution identifying and implementing on-going reductions of at least $10,000,000 for the 2024-25 school year,” Parasidis continued. “This resolution will be necessary to maintain fiscal solvency, especially since other bargaining units are currently unsettled.”
Under the planned spending reductions, Parasidis said that CCCOE agreed that the district would be able to financially support the current agreement with SRVEA.
In addition to approving the agreement with SRVEA at this week’s meeting, the board also voted unanimously to approve a resolution directing district staff to develop a fiscal solvency plan and identify how to reduce spending by $10 million while developing the budget for the coming school year.
At the upcoming workshop, district staff are set to provide their recommendations for the budget reduction and solicit feedback from the board.
The SRVUSD board is set to meet for the discussion at 4 p.m. on Monday (Feb. 26). The agenda is available here.
Perhaps focus on the 3Rs instead of stuff that should be left to the parents of the children. Just a thought.
Also not sure how you cut costs in general when Sacramento is mandating towns and cities to increase their housing/populations that will require more resources… including classrooms and teachers.
One thing to cut could be the 15 Equity Liasons at $2 million per year. Put them back in the classroom.