THE IMPACTS OF widespread charter school encroachment and district mismanagement are on display in Alum Rock Union School District (ARUSD), which voted last spring to close or consolidate eight of its 21 schools. The turbulence continued in August, with the school board firing their superintendent for the second time in three years. As educators work to create some sense of stability for students, Alum Rock Educators Association’s Rivera says there are widespread impacts in the schools that remain.

AREA Treasurer Danielle Letts, Vice President Maria Martinez and President Sandra Rivera

“We’re seeing greater needs in different classroom areas than before,” she said. “Instead of smaller class sizes and campuses, we have bigger classes and campuses, and we just can’t provide the same services. How are we going to be able to give our students the small-class experience Alum Rock has always provided?”

If Prop. 55 funding expires, ARUSD would immediately lose about $11.2 million in state funding, which Rivera says would alter the educational experience for all Alum Rock students, with layoffs and program cuts a certainty.

At risk would be “non-classroom and support staff, as well as reducing non-core programs like arts and enrichment,” she says. “If school isn’t fun and we’re not tapping into students’ interests, we see more behavior issues, attendance issues and truancy. Then that hits us in the ADA” (Average Daily Attendance funding for California schools is based on student attendance and used for general purpose funding like the Local Control Funding Formula [LCFF]).

Rivera worries that school districts like Alum Rock will be unable to weather the draconian cuts that would come with Prop. 55 expiration. With ARUSD’s more than $30 million a year in special education costs alone, any funding cuts will equate to very steep
drops in services for students. She says AREA leaders have been educating members about Prop. 55 and the need to extend the funds — and how failing to do so would look in their district.