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Schools

ABC School Board Discusses Budget Contingency Plans

The ABC School Board met for the second meeting of February to go over the specifics of Gov. Brown's budget proposal.

The ABC Unified School District Board convened on Feb. 22 for their second meeting of the month. The meeting focused on the possible contingency plans for Gov. Brown’s budget proposal, which would greatly cut school funding.

Toan Nguyen, the district’s chief financial officer, led a PowerPoint presentation on contingency plans A and B. According to the presentation, the state is facing a $25,400,000,000 budget deficit over the next 17 months.

Gov. Brown's proposed budget includes extending the four taxes (Personal Income Tax, Sales Tax, Vehicle License Fee and Dependent Exemption Credits) if approved by voters. Voters will have to agree to this extension in order to keep cuts at a minimal level - otherwise known as Plan A. ABC Federation of Teachers President Laura Rico spoke to the board about getting the extension approved.

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“We have to work our butts off to get this passed,” Rico said. “Employees in this district have taken a cut. We haven’t had a raise in three years. Our class sizes are increasing.”

According to the presentation, if the Legislature approves a special election, and if the voters approve the tax extension, Plan A maybe be implemented, which results in the district taking about $9,000,000 in cuts but funding will be generally the same as last year. If the Legislature approves a special election, and if the voters reject the tax extension, Plan B may be implemented, which results in about $15,000,000 in cuts.

“We have to really deal with the issues,” Superintendent Gary Smuts said. “We’ve been handed a terrible set of circumstances. The rationale for Plan B is that the amount of money the state will give us will only allow us to preserve the core classroom experience: a teacher and a set of students – virtually nothing outside of that.”

Speaking on behalf of his bandmates at Nixon Academy, 12-year-old Yuan Lin spoke before the Board to save his music program which, like all schools in the district, could take a huge cut in funding compared to other subjects.

“It’s very unfair to students who love band,” Lin said. “Music is very good for the brain. “

Lin continued to explain a book he has at home about paradoxes. He offered the example of a story in the book about a thief who steals one penny from each of his targets.  Like the thief, Lin believes the cuts from his school should be spread schoolwide in order to take focus off the band program.

Boardmember Armin Reyes understands the difficulty of what is going to happen to the schools. He said he receives a lot of e-mails from parents asking to save band programs.

“It takes the whole community to save this school district,” Reyes said.

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