THE SUPERINTENDENT’S PERSPECTIVE August 2008
On the eve of the 2008-09 Back-to-School season, a time when students and families begin to prepare with excitement….. and sometimes trepidation….. for the fast-paced school year ahead, California’s fiscal questions remain unanswered. At the local level, school districts are, in a sense, “flying blind” because the programs we start this month for students do not yet have a signed state budget in place to guarantee funding for the year.
In these uncertain times, local leaders like myself, who believe strongly that education has a vital role to play in building the economy, have ironically had to dismantle the very programs we worked passionately to implement. It is truly agonizing to put together a $3 million cut list comprised of essential services for children in the school system.
The shock of reduced service is being felt now by the approximately 250 high school students and their families that in prior years would have counted on Moorpark Unified School District busses for transportation. Parents were notified last spring, with deep regret on my part, that the District had studied various options and ultimately made the wrenching decision to cut services for older students in order to retain transportation for younger children and to keep from cutting more deeply into the instructional program.
Because home to school transportation is not considered a required service by the state, the District receives specific transportation funding for only 24% of the $1 million needed to fund the student transportation program. I personally feel terrible that any of our families are being stressed by the discontinuation of transportation services. The staff stands ready to assist efforts of parents that want to coordinate with each other for car pooling in their neighborhoods. To address traffic concerns, parents are strongly urged to drop off students at Mountain Meadows Park and Glenwood Park and have them walk the few blocks to school. That will help reduce congestion immediately adjacent to Moorpark High School and improve safety conditions for everyone. If the adopted state budget allows us to fund more services than we are currently planning, the District will gladly get in gear to restore what we can.
So as not to leave the impression that transportation was the only service reduction, let me remind everyone that public budget hearings took place month after month last spring though June 2008 when cuts were instituted in virtually every area of the school district including: reduction of one or more days of pay for every employee, elimination of positions in District administration, principals, coordinators, teachers, counselors, psychologists, instructional assistants, custodians, library, technology, grounds and cafeteria staff as well as stipended positions in sports, extra-curricular areas and Board compensation. Instructional materials budgets were reduced by 10% in every school and department.
Given this reality, we can spin our wheels deploring the situation or we can rally behind our teachers and school employees as they prepare to greet the students with plans for a highly productive academic year, despite the reduced circumstances. We need to continue the positive partnership with parents and the community support that Moorpark is famous for, to enrich the educational programs for our students as they deserve. I believe that we have an even greater calling, as the old Bing Crosby song says, to “accentuate the positive…..eliminate the negative” in the context of the learning environment that we create for the students this year. The most important thing we can all do is to maximize our creativity in using the resources we have to support our students’ motivation and achievement.
Ellen Smith, Superintendent
Moorpark Unified School District