Trustees Hear Passionate Pleas for ‘A New Way’

• High School Principal May Step Down

By Patric Hedlund

“There is a bit of a stun factor going on here. It is hard for all of us to believe this is happening,” El Tejon Teachers Association (ETTA) representative Chris Pennella said in an interview March 14. She stood at the March 9 El Tejon Unified School District Trustees meeting to plead for creative “out of the box” thinking about the continuing march toward local teacher layoffs due to California’s budget deficits.

“We are a small district, maybe we could have considered other options,” Pennella said at the March meeting. “At least we could have had an opportunity to talk about it together.”

Pennella said she was in shock and wished that she had been able to come up with some alternative proposals before the loss of 9.5 more “full time equivalent” (FTE) teaching positions was announced by the district.

Director of Fiscal Services Terri Geivet also delivered an anguished speech at the March 9 meeting. She seemed to surprise herself as she began to express to the trustees and public how emotionally hard it is to create budgets that slash jobs of teachers in order to achieve a budget that the county superintendent of schools will certify.

It was a night at which several people shared distress at the trap local school districts are caught within.

Geivet explained the situation: “Jerry Brown says ‘I won’t raise taxes, the voters will have to raise taxes.’ So we have two scenarios going on. Jerry Brown has to convince legislators to put a question to the voters on a special ballot about the extension of taxes for five more years.

“If the legislators don’t put it on the ballot, or if they do and the voters don’t vote for it—and I think people won’t vote for it—we will get the $349 hit for the next two years,” plus, Geivet said, "even if voters do extend, there will still be a $19 per student cut in the per student ‘ADA’ (average daily attendance) education stipend from the state.

“But if we only have the $19 loss, we will hire back staff as fast as we can,” she said. Geivet paused only a moment before adding: “But we’re being hit by a double whammy, because we are also a district with diminishing enrollment, so we have less ADA coming next year anyway.”

In fact, attrition in students is almost three times as damaging to the bottom line as the state budget problems. ETUSD has lost 154 students since this time last year—which could translate to over $1,028,500 in ADA losses to the district. The loss of $349 per student due to the state deficit appears to slice about $373,470 from the revenue side of the ledger next year, if the voters do not change that.

As of today, there are 48 teachers employed by ETUSD, Terri Geivet said (prior to the 9.5 positions being cut).

Over the past three years, from 2009 to 2011, as enrolment has declined and the state budget crisis has persisted, the board of trustees has voted to authorize the elimination of 25 teaching positions from the district payrolls. But Superintendent Katie Kleier said in an email on Wednesday, Mar. 16 that it appears that only 14 teachers have actually been cut.

In 2009, she said, 4.5 teachers were given layoff notices, “but 2.5 returned, for a loss of two teachers.” The board had authorized 11 layoffs in 2009. In 2010, she said, six teachers were given layoff notices and four returned. That year, the board had authorized the elimination of 10.5 positions.

District staff have explained that sometimes voluntary resignations (when people move for personal reasons) and retirements absorb some of the staff reduction cuts. Additionally, when fiscal conditions occasionally change before school starts again, some of those who have been released have been hired back.

Still, Penella’s admonition that “we don’t have to do this the way the larger districts do, you have let Schools Legal [the board’s attorneys] get to you and we [union members] let our professional handlers get to us. We need to look at other options,” opened questions that were not pursued in the meeting. Pennella said in the later interview that she would like to have a roundtable discussion between teachers, administrators, staff and parents on the issues.

Trustee Anita Anderson said she would like to extend an invitation to community members— from business people to seniors—to step up to volunteer assistance, whether with donated time or other resources.

• High School Principal May Step Down

In a short note Wednesday, Frazier Mountain High School Principal Dan Penner confirmed that he may be laid off. He reflected that he was assistant principal and athletic director for three years before serving as principal for six years at FMHS.

District officials said they cannot “confirm or deny” a personnel matter, but Penner plans to serve for the remainder of his contract year, he said, adding, “It is my goal to continue to serve the students, staff, parents and our community with nothing less than the professionalism that I have always shown.”

This is part of the March 18, 2011 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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