Schools
ABC School District Welcomes Dr. Mary Sieu as New Superintendent
The ABC School Board had its last meeting of June, but kicked it off with a bang by holding a reception for the new Superintendent, Dr. Mary Sieu, taking the place of Dr. Gary Smuts.
A swarm of warm congratulations and well wishes filled the building on July 26, as Dr. Mary Sieu dropped the “deputy” from her title and was welcome as the new Superintendent of the district. A short reception was held just before the regularly-scheduled school board meeting (where Sieu for the first time served as Superintendent in place of retired Dr. Gary Smuts) and offered comments regarding her recent promotion.
“First of all, I'm just very excited on taking on this new position because I think that with the enormous amount of community support, like the ones who came tonight to this event, I know that I can lead in a very collaborative and a very positive way in the future,” Sieu said. “There's a lot of people that I have relied on in the past 23 years as a deputy, and I'm very confident I can continue to work with them in the future.”
When the meeting resumed, one of the big items on the agenda was the budget adoption for the 2012-2013 Fiscal Year.
State of the State:
Currently, the State if facing an additional $15.7 billion budget deficit over the next 12 months.
The Governor's May Revision included:
$8,300,000,000 in cuts
$5,900,000,000 in revenues through a tax initiative
$2,500,000,000 in other funding/borrowing
Budget Balancing Proposals:
Expenditure Reductions - $8,303.5
Revenues - $5,918.9
Other - $2,517.9
Total - $16,740.3
Richard Hathaway of the ABC Federation of Teachers offered his comments regarding money being transferred from the in order to sustain other programs in the budget.
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“We're fortunate we're able to transfer money,” Hathaway said. “That came at a cost to adult school. It wasnt free money. Adult school did take a hit. Even though we're not laying off probationary employees, there are other programs that the community uses that have been condensed, and some people aren't back. Community members have to pay out of their pocket now to build those programs. They're willing to do that so far.”
Board president, Olympia Chen, added that, despite the cuts, there's a true, valuable reason for the adult school to exist.
The next ABC Board Meeting will be held on July 17.