Vantage Point: Get all stakeholders involved in your budgets 

In the coming months, local boards everywhere will be hard at work in difficult budget meetings. Programs that offer more individual attention to students who need extra help—class-size reduction, before- and after-school, summer school—may be on the chopping block.

For the next couple of years, we are all going to face some tough choices. (And if your school district is in declining enrollment, you have even more difficult decisions to make.) A recent survey of county offices of education conducted by the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association indicates that perhaps 55 percent of districts in the state will file a qualified or negative certification—saying that they either might not or cannot meet their financial obligations.

I am sure that governance teams throughout the state already have or soon will receive their Second Interim Budget Report. If your district is like mine, you have probably filed a qualified certification. For districts and county offices that find themselves in this situation, now would be a perfect time to draw on the finance training available through CSBA’s Master in Governance program. No, it won’t make the decisions we all face any easier, but it will serve as a roadmap in guiding you through the process.

It’s especially important at this time that you ask hard questions of your staff and offer alternative ideas that reflect the values of your community. I strongly advise governing boards to form a budget committee that includes parents, teachers, business people and the larger community. Our constituents are counting on us to inform them and involve all stakeholders in the budgeting process. To put the education jigsaw puzzle together, we must use all the pieces that are available.

And be sure to invite your local legislators to your budget deliberations; they need to understand the painful cuts you are considering. Let them hear from your staff, parents, teachers and community members as you struggle with the possibility of closing a school, closing down programs and laying off teachers and other staff.

I understand that some legislators at the state PTA’s recent Legislative Conference were saying, “Don’t worry, the schools have rainy-day reserves that will get them through these tough times.” It is our responsibility to educate our legislators. They need to know that our rainy-day reserves are not meant for a tidal wave.

While CSBA will continue to put the heat on those in the halls of the state Capitol, we are counting on each of you to put the fuel on the fire in your communities on behalf of public education.