Budget passes - Adult ed does not get restored

The school board passed the budget on June 16, 2010 without giving adult ed. back anything. They did repeatedly state that this could all still change and they're doing it because they have to. They congratulated themselves on reinstating many of the things that had been cut at one time like some of the counselors and librarians and the art and the music programs. They were also happy that they didn't have to lay off many of the teachers (rumor seems to have it that most K-12 teachers that were laid off got or are getting reinstated) or increase class sizes like they had originally anticipated. This part was infuriating for me.

They breezed over the adult ed part and even presented that we have $774,801 which "does not account for fee increases". (This is misleading as we have roughly $180,000 from federal money and a projected $580,000 from fees - which is a higher fee number than the roughly $350,000 we collected in fees last year. Most of that money is restricted in terms of where it can go and very little can actually go to pay teachers).

Various trustees talked about giving money back but none mentioned adult ed while some did mention a librarian who needed another 0.1 FTE which would cost the district $10,000. It was extremely disappointing to see how much they have forgotten adult ed and how much money they have taken from our budget (~1.4 million) to pay for K-12 things.

There is still talk that at some point, when the state passes its budget (maybe July but probably August or September or even later), that then there will be talk of restoring funds. That seems to me to be too late as our school will have already devised a program without these funds. Either way, the board does not seem to be inclined to give money back to adult ed. as various trustees talked about restoring funds but, while not mentioning adult ed, they did mention other programs or parts.

So where are we?
The parent ed program will have two co-ops. One (Beach Flats) is funded by a county grant and the other (Westside) is funded by fees. Three more are having to come up with all (or most) of their own money. The parent ed teachers have banded together and formed committees to write grants and to fund raise. They are raising their fees so that they can cover their costs.

The GED/HS program I think will survive for maybe 20 hours a week which will be funded by the federal dollars.

The ESL program is still up in the air. As far as I know we have about $80,000 which will pay for maybe 3 classes in the am and 3 in the pm and some combination of days and hours. I'm not sure where we are at in terms of what we will offer and when. There will be the lengthy process of offering assignments by seniority which probably won't start until July.

Cuts are official though preliminary

Faced with a deficit of $5.2 million, an incomplete list of retirees and no concessions on a reduced school year by the teachers' union, the Santa Cruz City Schools Board agreed Wednesday 3/3/2010 to cut every program in adult education and lay off about 50 temporary adult education teachers.

Sad, sad news

After hours of public comment, the Santa Cruz City Schools district board approved a preliminary budget on Wednesday 2/10/2010 that will cut $1.43 million from the Santa Cruz Adult School.  We did what we could but it did not save us in the end.
(See the pictures)

Help us on Feb. 10th at the School Board Meeting at Santa Cruz High School

On Wednesday, Feb. 10th, district administration will present the school board with 5 budget balancing options for 2010-2011.  The options call for virtually eliminating the Santa Cruz Adult School.  Cuts range from $552,959 to the more probable scenario of cutting $1,432,545 from our budget of $1,600,000.
We're sending out petitions, writing to the school board and to the newspaper, and we'll be showing up on the night of the 10th to try to save our school.  Come join us at the School Board meeting if you can on Wednesday Feb. 10 at 6:30 at the the Santa Cruz High School Theater at 425 Walnut Avenue in Santa Cruz.

We have moved

We are now at 319 La Fonda.  Though we're not totally set up, we will be soon.

December News - Safe for now..

On Wednesday, December 9, the Trustees of the Santa Cruz School Board Education were asked to decide where to cut 3.9 million dollars from the District's budget for the 2010/2011 school year. Faced with 14 ranked categories, they decided to make cuts totaling $1,872,303 to things such as Deferred Maintenance, the Transportation yard lease, and Maintenance and Operations restructuring, Purchasing restructuring, and Educational Services restructuring. Fortunately, after another impassioned plea from Adult School Educators, they decided not to cut $500,000 from the Adult Education budget. Instead they asked for more time to make decisions as to where to make additional cut and ingeniously put placeholders totaling the remaining $2,018,722 in the general categories of salaries and benefits of all bargaining units.

August Update

We cut 4 programs - Health and Safety, Home Ec, Adults with Disabilities, and Older Adults. Teachers had the opportunity to be community based and some were lucky to be hired by community organizations. The remaining programs implemented new fees or had fee increases. We also reduced hours for some classes. The move to our new location at La Fonda is still undetermined and depends on the granting of permits to Maintenance and Operations, who will take over our site.

Cuts to the Adult School

On May 27, 2009, the Board of Education of Santa Cruz City Schools talked about budget cuts for the school year 2010-2011. The board needs to cut $2,550,000 for 2010-2011. They were given three options including taking all or part of the entire Adult School’s budget. They voted to make the cuts but they did not specify where the cuts would come from. The board will make a decision on June 17, 2009 at the District Office (Soquel High School, 401 Old San Jose Road, Soquel) in Room 312 (Upper left, back of campus).

Please come with signs to show your support for our Adult School.

Answer the Question

How has the Santa Cruz Adult School
helped you or your family?