Lauren VaneNo mention was made of salary...

Lauren Vane

No mention was made of salary cuts in Tuesday’s budget reduction

recommendation from Huntington Beach City School District Supt. Duane

Dishno. This came as a surprise to many, after district employees

feared that Dishno would reaffirm the former superintendent’s parting

advice that salaries be cut by 4%.

The board of trustees did approve more than $700,000 in budget

cuts, but decided to wait on making several key decisions that could

significantly alter the budget: the elimination of all health clerks

and the reduction of school librarian hours.

This action comes one week after the board approved closing

Kettler Elementary due to declining enrollment.

“It becomes a whole lot tougher when you can put faces and names

with these positions,” Dishno said.

But even if the tabled items are approved at the upcoming April 5

meeting, the district still needs to restore nearly $1 million to the budget. The money could come from either increased revenue or further

reductions, Dishno said. The decision must be made by June 30, when

the district is required to have a formal budget in place.

Though the school board and administration uttered not a word

about salary cuts, community members turned out to address their

concerns that salary cuts could be waiting in the wings.

“It is extremely expensive to live in this community, to raise

children in this community,” said Ken DeMarco a seventh-grade teacher

at Sowers Middle School.

“What I’m asking you tonight is to not make my family and me pay

for mistakes which have been made here,” DeMarco said.

Kari Penso, president of the Huntington Beach Elementary Teacher’s

Assn., urged the board not to make employee salary cuts until every

other option has been exhausted.

“The morale in this district is circling the drain,” Penso said.

The pressure is on for the district to restore $2 million to its

budget and the approved reductions will contribute to the

restoration, but additional cuts could be necessary, Dishno said.

Board members hesitated last night to make a decision regarding the

elimination of health clerks and reduction of librarian hours, two

items that if passed, could mean a total of $306,000 returned to the

budget.

Throughout the district’s financial crisis, parents, teachers and

board members have all pointed to state budget shortfalls as the

partial reasoning behind the crunch.

“The current proposal that the governor made public absolutely

breaks the promise he made to 6 million students in this state,”

Dishno said.

This weekend, concerned community members showed that they are not

going to wait around; after the recent school closure announcement

and the possibility of salary cuts, the community members took to the

streets in a rally on Saturday at Sower’s Middle School to show

Sacramento that they mean business.

Moffett Elementary parent Jenni Bradish attended the rally and

sold handmade T-shirts with the slogan: “Schwarzenegger, Your State

Supports 98 -- Won’t You?”

“I think it’s sad when you have people who spend more of their day

with our kids than we do, getting their salaries cut,” Bradish said.

City Councilmember and Mayor Pro Tem Dave Sullivan spoke at

Saturday’s rally and said that nearly 300 people were in attendance.

“It was really impressive,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan said he came to the rally to show the City Council’s

support for the community members.

“I think he’s [Schwarzenegger] doing an outstanding job overall,

but on this particular issue I think he’s wrong,” Sullivan said.

When the governor’s budget proposal was released in January, the

city school district knew it would need to make $2 million is budget

cuts. Although the budget allowed for an overall increase in K-12

spending, several variables and the absence of promised Prop. 98

funds are making it crunch time for school districts across the

state.

The governor’s budget proposes to shift responsibility for the

teachers’ retirement costs from the state onto the school district,

resulting in more than $400,000 that the school district must take

on. Additionally, Gov. Schwarzenegger withheld $2 billion of

Proposition 98 dollars last year, promising the money would be

available this year. Much to the disappointment of California

educators, along with the 2005-06 budget proposal came news that

schools would not be seeing the funds any time soon.