A conversation with … Superintendents Steven Lund and Maggie Mejia 

Steven Lund is superintendent of the rural, 1,961-student Fort Bragg Unified School District in Northern California’s remote coastal region. He was named Administrator of the Year by the Association of California School Administrators in 1992 and is president of the Small School Districts Association. A former elementary teacher and principal, he has been a superintendent in districts of various sizes for more than 16 years.

M. Magdalena “Maggie” Carrillo Mejia is superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District, a diverse urban district in the capital with an enrollment of just under 49,000 students. A former classroom teacher and curriculum specialist, Mejia has served as a superintendent in school districts throughout California since 1996. She was named Administrator of the Year by the California Association for Bilingual Education, the Milken National Educator of the Year and Woman of the Year for the 30th State Senate District by Sen. Martha Escutia.

California Schools Managing Editor Kristi Garrett recently spoke with the superintendents to see how their districts are coping with declining enrollment, a condition now affecting more than 40 percent of districts in the state.

What has contributed to declining student enrollment in your district?

LUND: Like many school districts in rural northern California, the economy is the major factor. With the change from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy we are suffering. Another key factor in our area is the cost of housing. Home prices are not only out of reach for many working families, they are also out of reach for our new, young teaching staff. Fundamentally, the lack of jobs and affordable housing are driving many young families out of our community.

MEJIA: Sac City has been experiencing a decline in enrollment at the elementary level for approximately five years. At the high school level, however, we are growing. I believe a number of factors have contributed to this: lower birth rates, a graying population, the economy and housing costs.

LUND: Another element for Fort Bragg and the entire county is the increasing number of charter schools in our area. In addition to all this, we have a neighboring school district that continues to draw a significant number of inter-district transfers from our district.

Did you project the decline, or how much notice did you have?

MEJIA: This is my third year in Sacramento, so I need to qualify my response to this time frame. In the past our district had done minimal tracking and that was probably typical of most districts unless they were experiencing significant growth or decline. Today, Sac City, like other districts, is forecasting and master planning. We have a better handle on the duration of the decline and the impact that it will have on our system. Our staff is working more closely with city staff, sharing information that will help all of us make better decisions. We’ve gotten better at data collection, analysis and partnering with our city so that together we can better plan for the future.

How about in Fort Bragg?

LUND: We have carefully anticipated a continuing decline each year. There are no significant reasons or projects in our immediate area that would cause us to anticipate any change, other than the possibility of leveling off at some point. In fact, for the 2004-05 school year, we experienced a decline of 60 ADA, whereas currently for the 2005-06 school year we estimate a decline of 30.

What effect has the decline had on the district? How have programs and services changed?

LUND: The effect has been dramatic and demoralizing in many respects. Our board of trustees accepts the difficult responsibility to live within our means. We annually work hard to keep the cuts as far away from the classroom as possible. This core value has required us to reduce staff and programs in almost every area of operations. We have cut district-level curriculum and instructional staff, technology, class-size reduction in the 11th grade, librarian, custodial and grounds; along with these painful reductions, all employee groups have had to endure little change in salary over the past few years, with large increases in the employee share of benefit costs.

MEJIA: We’ve had tremendous change as well. In the last three years, we have had to reduce our budget by more than $50 million. Consequently, we’ve had massive reductions while trying to maintain essential programs like K-3 class-size reduction; in other words, trying to keep these reductions away from the classroom. We have made a large number of staff reductions at the central office. We also have implemented two major objectives: closely monitoring student attendance and ongoing monitoring of expenditures. All managers are asked to evaluate expenditures for their alignment to our district’s strategic objectives. We have also set a 95 percent actual daily attendance goal for all our schools. And we also monitor expenditures now on a quarterly basis. These actions may require mid-year adjustments.

So you’re keeping a much tighter handle on your financial situation at all times, then?

MEJIA: Yes, we are. We evaluate expenditure patterns and are committed to keeping them in sync with the revenues that we receive. We work hard at creating opportunities for success for all our students so that they want to attend school on a daily basis. We also restructured the central office on the education side to make us leaner and to have better coherence and coordination pre-K through adult school. We’re the first district in the state to be ISO-9000 certified in quality standards for business, and we have gotten better at aligning our educational decisions to our strategic goals and board priorities.

What else is Fort Bragg doing to address the decline?

LUND: As I already mentioned, significant programs and services have suffered because of the decline. Together we have done a credible job of keeping the reductions as far from the classroom as possible. We offer fewer electives, art and music classes have been reduced or eliminated altogether, we no longer have a district librarian, we do not have a district nurse and nursing services are at the absolute minimum. Adult/student ratios have increased with fewer instructional assistants, we no longer offer a student support class at one of our elementary sites, and the budget for athletic transportation has been eliminated.

Further, rooms that were once cleaned daily are now on a rotation schedule and our grounds are not as well maintained due to decreased staff. The level of student support classes and services have been reduced at the same time as the need for these services is increasing. With the emphasis on increasing expectations for achievement, reduced support for families in need and individual students has increased stress across the board. Another factor is an increasing reliance on parents and community to raise funds for programs and services that have been affected by the budget decline. We are very fortunate to have parents and a community that remain extraordinarily generous in their support of our students and programs.

Coping with these challenges, while at the same time keeping the focus on student learning and closing the achievement gap, is difficult. The ongoing enrollment decline also creates inevitable conflict and strains our professional relationships due to our inability to increase compensation to keep pace with the increasing cost of living.

Is your student demographic changing as the population declines? Is there a particular population of students that is leaving?

MEJIA: Yes. In two years we’ve seen an increase in our Hispanic/Latino population, and a corresponding decrease in our African American and Asian populations. When I came here three years ago, we were pretty evenly distributed: 25-25-25-25. Our Latino population is now 30 percent, our Asian is 22 percent, our African American is 21 percent, and our white population is 22 percent. As you can see, we are very diverse. Our kids represent 58 linguistic groups. Two-thirds of our families live in poverty, and almost a third of our students are English learners.

LUND: We, too, have seen a large and continuous increase in our Hispanic/Latino population and are now at about 30 percent district-wide and growing. In our case, the shift from a resource-based to a tourist-based economy has been a key reason. Along with the exodus from our area because of employment issues we also tend to lose a portion of our English-only population to both our neighboring school district and local charter programs. The job opportunities in the service and tourism industry are generally lower paying and have resulted in a consistent increase in students and families living below the poverty level, which strains our school and community resources.

Looking to the future, do you anticipate that the decline will continue or will it level off?

MEJIA: Our figures are showing that we’re now leveling off, but we’re still going to have a modest decline for at least three more years. At the same time, we’re out there aggressively marketing our schools, trying to recapture some of the students who might have gone somewhere else at some point in time by creating more options for them. We are also tracking student movement, especially at the high school level. There’s tremendous mobility in this region, and that has been a surprise to me. I’m from Southern California and I thought we had high mobility rates down there, but they are high in my district. I believe it is due to the economic conditions our families are facing in our state and nation.

How do these demographic changes affect your district and the community at large?

LUND: On the one hand I feel the increase in diversity enriches our community. Having different cultures and ethnic groups in our small town provides our students with contact and experience in a way that reflects our society as a whole. Many small communities do not have this opportunity. Conversely, we need to create an environment in our schools and town to increase diversity and representation at all levels of governance.

The larger issue is a concern that we are becoming a retirement community with no meaningful future, in terms of employment, for our graduates. Our ability to attract and retain police, medical personnel and teachers is a growing problem and concern. A primary element is the skyrocketing cost of housing in our beautiful coastal community. This problem is sure to be compounded when a large number of our current employees in these professions retire in the near future.

MEJIA: The biggest impact on us is that the support services — those beyond academic services which we used to pay for with general fund dollars — can no longer be provided. This has had a major effect on our students and their families. Children who live in poverty and their families do not have the safety nets that were once available. The family is struggling to survive. The families need jobs, affordable housing, transportation and medical care. Learning for our children needs to be supported by the entire community. Communities that support families help them achieve the dreams they hold for their children and the future.

So now you’re finding yourself less able to assist families with some of the core problems that are affecting academic achievement?

MEJIA: Yes, the supports for families and those that helped level the playing field for our poor children have been greatly reduced.

How have you engaged the community in your planning or response to the issue of declining enrollment?

LUND: We had extensive budget advisory meetings over the past few years that helped increase understanding and awareness of our problem, more than just agreement on where to cut. Our board has had to face difficult decisions with site councils, bargaining groups and specific program and personnel reductions. They have dealt with these in an open and professional manner. We also participate actively in a variety of community efforts to examine the economic reality of our region. We are fortunate to have an active group of community and business leaders who are committed to finding local solutions to our problems. Even with these challenges we were able to successfully pass a school bond two years ago to better address our facility needs.

MEJIA: We have several forums or initiatives. By statute, if a district is contemplating changing the use of a school, closing a school, joint use, etc., it has to convene a 7-11 committee. The law says the committee must consist of a minimum of seven members, and it cannot exceed 11. It must also represent the diversity of the district. This committee and our facilities committee are studying the use of our facilities and are exploring joint ventures as well as ideas for generating revenue for our district. For example, instead of closing a school, let’s lease a couple of empty classrooms to one of the community based organizations in the area that provides services to our families in that community or offer preschool, adult education classes, etc.

The third community group is our bond oversight committee, which again by statute has certain responsibilities, and they provide excellent expertise to our business and facilities practices. We also have site and district advisory committees that are great sources of feedback. One of Sac City’s priorities is parent and community engagement, and we continue to learn how to more authentically engage our constituents in decision-making processes: budgetary, educational and use of facilities.

Besides more money, what would help you to deal with declining enrollment issues? Are there programmatic requirements, or laws and regulations, that are creating an undue hardship?

LUND: Since you took away the simplest response, I will do my best. We could use greater flexibility — fewer categorical restrictions, fully funding mandates and transportation costs. We have an incredible accountability system at both the state and federal levels to demonstrate achievement. We no longer need as much additional regulation and documentation to demonstrate compliance, so the focus should be on student achievement and local control.

MEJIA: I know you said ‘besides money’; however, there exist a number of mandates that demand personnel and time. Our state needs to fully fund these unfunded mandates. That’s No. 1.

Second, modify or eliminate regulations that were written at a point in time that are now redundant or unnecessary. For example, our funding level is based on a K-12 funding formula, meaning that we receive the same amount of dollars per student K-12. This affects our ability to fund necessary initiatives such as our high school reform. Because we’re declining enrollment, the eligibility we need to build small high schools has been exhausted even though we are experiencing growth at the high school level. This eligibility formula used by the state needs to be reformed.

I’ll give you another example. As part of our portfolio of school options for our families, we have 14 charter schools. A good number of these schools are at the high school level. When a school goes charter at the high school level, it receives the high school ADA rate, and that is deducted from the district’s apportionment. This has contributed to encroachment in Sac City.

Third, there really are disincentives right now for high school reform. I’m really passionate about high school reform, because two-thirds of my career has been in high school. I know that rigor, relevance, and relationships are essential. We’re struggling because high school reform costs more than we currently receive through our state funding system. Finally, I don’t think we are addressing the big issues that are taking an overwhelming amount of our budget: health benefits and the implementation of GASB 45 [Government Accounting Standards Board Statement No. 45].

LUND: Besides removing the charter penalty when students return to home districts, I would also suggest changing the current system of ADA accounting to an enrollment funding model, and increasing class-size reduction flexibility, particularly for small school districts. It would also help to change the March 15 notification requirement to April or May, and our current complex and uncoordinated assessment system could be streamlined to increase instructional time. Finally, I would like to see a competent and thorough examination of the adequacy issue. I think it is patently unfair that funding and resources can vary so widely when we are all now held to the same achievement standards.

MEJIA: I agree. The fiscal resource allocation pattern in this state is outdated and it does not take into account that in urban districts children who are predominantly poor and of color have needs that must be supported fiscally. We need to deal with this inadequacy of funding.

We have some of the nation’s highest performance standards. Let’s fund our schools at a level that does not place us at the bottom in the nation. Let’s confront adequacy in funding by recognizing that some children begin school one to two years behind their peers. Let’s aggressively address the issue that these children need more dollars to level the playing field. Let’s not rest until we have closed the achievement gap and until all children in California are achieving at world class levels.