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Education Week: California Crisis Slams K-12 Hard (PDF)

Budget Impact on K-2 Class Size

1. California Budget Picture:
California’s state budget shortfall is $24 billion. In his May Revision, the Governor has proposed a truckload of severe cuts to public services, including education.  He is now calling for $1.4 billion in cuts for the school year that is now ending, followed by an additional $4 billion in cuts next year.

2. SJUSD has acted responsibly in making difficult budget decisions in response to the state fiscal crisis and resulting shortage of school funding and has made a commitment to maintain core academic programs and services for our students.

San Jose Unified School District has been fiscally conservative:

1.  SJUSD is using the district reserve funds to help balance the budget between now and 2010-11.

2. SJUSD is using all categorical one-time reserve funds to help balance the budget for 2009-10

3.  Additionally, SJUSD anticipates using all available Federal Stimulus funds to help balance the budget. 

4.  SJUSD froze all spending during the 2008-09 school year and will continue to do so in 2009-10.

5.  All employees participated in a work furlough plan that saved $1.5 million during the 2008-09 school year.

6. SJUSD made budget reductions in programs and services for the 2009-10 school year to help balance the budget, saving over $2 million in general funds.

7. SJUSD created five funding priority categories based on parent, student, and staff survey results.

3.  As the reduction in state funding continues to impact our district, we continue to face program and service reductions and resulting reductions in staff.

1. SJUSD has already eliminated over 70 positions within the district, which included administrators, teachers and classified employees, for the 2009-10 school year.

2.  SJUSD has experienced a loss of revenue for the 2008-09 school year of $19 million.

3.  We now anticipate that the loss of revenue will increase to over $27 million in the 2009-10 school year. 

4.  We anticipate a total deficit of $18 million due to lost revenue over the next three years.  For the 2009-10 school year, the cut needed is $6 to $9 million. 

5.  We are now faced with having to make deeper cuts to balance our budget and keep the district financially solvent over the next three school years.

4. We are therefore taking forward to the School Board, resolutions to increase class size in the Kindergarten through second grade from 20 students to 30 students per class.

1.  We anticipate that the increase in class size at the early primary will help balance the district budget.

2.  For many years, class sizes at the early primary grades were at 30 to 1, prior to the class size incentive program becoming available.  The statewide financial crisis and the resulting loss of funds necessitate us increasing class size at these grade levels.

3.  There is a process that takes place involving Board resolutions and layoff hearings that will culminate in the Board taking action in late July.

4.  We approximate the number of teaching positions that would be eliminated by increasing class size in grades Kindergarten through second grade will be approximately 96 positions.  The actual number of teachers who will lose jobs will be less than 96 because of current vacancies that exceed 40 positions.

5.  We will keep staff informed as we determine actual impact during the next several weeks. 

6.  We regret having to take this action but these are challenging financial times and we believe this action is necessary to keep the district financially healthy.