State puts Santa Paula Elementary School District on fiscal early warning list
March 26, 2010
By Brian D. Wilson
Santa Paula News
Because the Santa Paula Elementary School District recently filed its second Qualified Interim financial report, they are now on the California Department of Education’s fiscal early-warning list.
The SPESD is one of 126 school districts on the list, a jump of 17 percent over last year. A Qualified Interim report means that the District may not meet its’ financial obligations in the current or coming two years. If the district had to file a negative certification that would mean they were unable to meet their financial obligations. That could lead to the State taking over the running of the district. In 2006-2007 there were only three districts on the negative certification list and 19 on the qualified list. Today, there are 12 districts on the negative certification list and 114 California districts with a qualified certification status. “Massive state budget cuts are crippling our public school system’s ability to operate, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell said. “Public education in California received $17 billion less in state funding than anticipated over the last two budget years. School districts already have made draconian cuts to programs and services, eliminated summer school, increased class sizes, and cut art, music, libraries, school nurses and sports.”
The Santa Paula Elementary School District sent out layoff notices to 31 teachers this month. In addition, 46 classified positions have been eliminated and 18 classified positions have had hours reduced, ranging from 30 minutes to five hours. The District has also made cuts in other areas, including in administration and management.
Statewide more than 13,000 teachers and other certificated school staff in California have now received preliminary layoff notices for the coming school year. More than 16,000 teachers lost their jobs last year, and roughly 10,000 classified school employees were also laid off over the last couple of years as a direct result of state budget cuts.
“I urge the Governor to reconsider the cuts proposed for public schools, and I also continue to call on the Governor and the legislature to approve SCA 6 so that local communities can have more control over the financial destiny of their school districts,” O’Connell said.
