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By Francine Phillips
August 30, 2009 (El Cajon)--The Grossmont Union High School District School Board convened a special meeting at the East Country Regional Education Center on Wednesday, Aug. 26 starting at 2 p.m. The special meeting included a two-hour closed session that dealt mostly with labor negotiations between the Board and representatives of the Grossmont Education Association, California School Employees Association, and Service Employees International Union. Some administrative appointments and the evaluation of assistant superintendent Mike Lewis were also on the closed session agenda.
The public portion of the meeting, convening at 4 p.m., began with presentation of a resolution supporting the building campaign of the Boys and Girls Clubs of East County. Jerry Fazio, executive director of the Clubs’ foundation, thanked the board for the acknowledgement and support of the $3.5 million effort to expand services to East County underserved youth. (Photo: Jerry Fazio, executive director of the foundation, accepts the resolution supporting the expansion of the Boys and Girls Clubs of East County program and facilities.)
“I know that we will see greater educational collaboration between the school board and the Clubs for the sake of East Country’s young people,” said Fazio. He cited 48 years of active Clubs in El Cajon, Lakeside, Santee and La Mesa as a strong foundation for future expansion and shared goals.
In other business, the resignation at the end of the calendar year of Patty Floyd, executive director of fiscal services, was reiterated to the board and they voted to rename the position executive director of fiscal services. The job description for the new position more fully describes all of the duties and responsibilities that were included in Floyd’s position.
The bulk of the meeting consisted of a presentation by director of finance Scott Patterson, outlining the budget shortfalls and a tiered response that was recommended to be adopted by the board. In outlining the recommendations, Patterson prefaced his remarks by emphasizing that, “We are trying to save the ‘people’ jobs – those that are currently filled. It’s in our best interests to keep people working.” He said that reducing staff through attrition was the preferred strategy. His recommendations also included reducing the use of “one-time” dollars so that revenues and costs could become more aligned.
Other cuts under consideration include doubling health benefit co-pays, asking the Grossmont Education Association to consent to a furlough plan, cutting Adult Education, tutoring, summer school, special day class offerings, and eliminating the 9th grade class size reductions in English and Math that have been adopted.
“We’ve been taking major actions to deal with the deficits already, but they just keep piling on,” said Patterson.
Trustee Jim Kelly explained that he thought the healthcare co-pay increase should be much greater.
“The only reason to keep a low co-pay is for those who can’t come up with $10,” said Kelly. “Why can’t we see the insanity of this? If we knew how much each person spent annually on the co-pay, we would see that if we instituted a $50 co-pay and self-insured as much as possible, that is better than reducing class sizes or cutting teachers.
“Who can’t afford to come up with $10 if they have to?” said Kelly.
Patterson told the board that there would likely be a workshop on a number of action recommendations toward the end of the year. The reality facing the district is that two years ago the state reimbursed the district at a rate of $6,700 per student. This year the district receives $5,700 per student, which represents a $40 million cut over the past two years.
Francine Phillips is a former editor of the East County Californian newspaper.
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