CUSD Faces Hard Times

Saturday's Claremont Courier reported on the tough budget choices facing the Claremont Unified School District Board. (The article is not posted on the Courier's website.)

According to the Courier article, the board is eliminating 12 district staff postions in a move that will reportedly save CUSD over $1 million in the next fiscal year's budget.

The article, by Tony Krickl, said:

Among the positions that were let go are the Director of the Adult School Steve Boyd, Director of Child Development Alan Gutman and Director of Secondary Education Carrie Allen, the former principal of Claremont High School.

Mr. Boyd will remain on as principal of San Antonio High School.

In addition, a custodial supervisor, staff accountant, IMC Assistant, education resource specialist, community liaison, instructional assistant, health assistant and 2 campus monitors were cut.

The article also Hilary LaConte:

"Looking at the list makes me feel very sick to my stomach," School Board Member Hilary LaConte said. "I know that there's not a lot we can do about it and I know that our staff is already working full out and will have to put in a lot of extra hours [because of the staff cuts]. To realize that we are helpless in this situation is really awful. So I'm sorry about this."

It is unfortunate, as LaConte said, but CUSD wasn't entirely helpless. CUSD's situation is not unlike home buyers caught up in the speculative housing market bubble. If the board had spent more judiciously in good times, if they had not spent beyond their means, they would have been better positioned to ride out the hard times, and they would not have made false promises, in the form of jobs, to the employees are now being let go. Instead, they just thought the good fiscal times would go on indefinitely. As a result, in a process that was years in the making, CUSD, like virtually every other school district in California, positioned themselves for a big fall.

And, the hard times may just be beginning. The recently approved state budget deal contains $5 billion in cuts to K-12 education, though federal bailout money may offset some of those cuts. Krickl's article went on to say that CUSD Superintendent David Cash said that there may be more job cuts in the future and that the district might have to cut the budget by "several million dollars."