With financial chaos forcing the Vallejo City Unified School District to seek a bailout loan from the state, teachers are warning that "students are the ones who are really going to lose out."
Vallejo Education Association members "are holding our breath to see what will happen next," says President Janice Sullivan.
Some teachers are choosing to move on or retire rather than face more deep cuts. "We have over 100 teachers retiring."
At press time, a $60 million bailout had been approved by the Senate Education Committee and was on its way to likely approval by the Senate Appropriations Committee and the full Legislature. The state is expected to appoint an outside administrator to take over district operations by July 1.
For the 1,050 teachers represented by VEA and for the Solano County school district's 18,500 students, news that an independent analysis had revealed the district was millions of dollars in the red hit like an earthquake.
The school board has called for a grand jury investigation. A preliminary criminal probe is under way.
Apparently, the district based its budget for the 2003-04 school year on gaining state funding for an unrealistic number of new students. Enrollment, meanwhile, declined by about 500 students.
Sullivan says the chapter raised many red flags about the district's finances two years ago. Last year, the district got rid of smaller classes in kindergarten and third grade, and this year is trying to cut all music programs, social workers, and middle school librarians and counselors.
When the district issued 218 layoff notices to teachers in March, the chapter fought back, reducing the layoffs to about a dozen.
Lynette Henley, a member of the CTA Board of Directors, says the district's financial chaos goes way back. "I served on the chapter bargaining team for 15 years off and on. The district could never really tell us where the money was."
Teachers had recommended against hiring the district's chief finance officer because of his track record at another Bay Area school district. He resigned after meeting with auditors.
"Teachers are just devastated now," says Henley. "They have been very careful about their spending - even spending money out of their own pockets for supplies. And now this."
Mike Myslinski
