I would like to share answers to a few of the questions that have come to my desk. Please feel free to send me any other questions that you have or questions that others have that you do not know the answers to. You are also welcome to send in any cost saving ideas that you have.

THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU DO TO HELP MAKE THIS DISTRICT A GREAT PLACE FOR OUR STUDENTS TO LEARN AND A GREAT PLACE FOR US TO WORK!

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Regarding the school calendar for next year…I just received word from the high school district that the dates we had originally received may not be accurate.  They may be starting school on August 29, 2012…I will let you know as soon as I know for sure.  I am sorry for the confusion.

Question:
What is the policy about starting your permanent position late because of a substitution position as a classified employee? Is this under the discretion of the principal or the district? Also, are bachelors degrees now required for classified positions?

Answer:
I am sorry, your question about starting your permanent position late because of a substitution position as a classified employee is confusing. Please feel free to contact Mary Branca directly for a specific answer.

Relative to your question about a requirement for a bachelor’s degree for classified positions. There has been no change to our district policy in this area. Every position in the district, classified or certificated, has a specific list of requirements depending on job requirements. Mary Branca shared that they have had to require a BA or pass a district test for instructional aides working with our upper grade and middle school students in math and writing because of NCLB compliance requirements.

Question:
If school starts earlier next year, would S.O.C. leave 1 week earlier in June to keep their designation as 10 1/2 month employees?

Answer:
The simple answer to your question is our school year is between July 1 and June 30, so next year’s start date does not impact this year’s work schedule.

Mary Branca has provided a more complete response:
The work calendar for 2012-13 has to be negotiated with CSEA. However, the S.O.C. (school office coordinator) 10 ½ month schedule for this year would not be changed. They worked the last 11 days of August 2011; and they will work until June 30, 2012. That is their 10 ½ months for this school year.

If school does start earlier for the 2012-13 school year, then they would return earlier in August 2012, and get out earlier in June 2013 rather than working all the way through until June 30. That would also comprise 10 ½ months.

I know everyone will feel like they have a short summer for 2012.

Question:
Will you be returning next year? If not when will the hiring process for your position start? I think with our current economic state, we'll need to get the right person in place ASAP to guide us for the rocky road ahead.

Answer:
Thank you for your question.  I have received several questions on this topic.  I agree that it is best for everyone for the decision to be made as early as possible.  The Board and I are very pleased at what we have been able to accomplish over these last 6 years and we want to see this success continue.  We also know that a change in the Superintendent position can cause anxiety at a time when we need as much stability as possible.

As a result, the Board took action on Monday evening to hire our new Superintendent for next year.  Mary Branca will continue with her responsibilities in Personnel and Dr. Dorka Doron will continue with her responsibilities in Educational Support Services, AND TOGETHER, they will be our CoSuperintendents.  I made this recommendation to the Board for many reasons including:

• I believe Mary and Dorka are outstanding leaders and work very well together 
• I believe they are uniquely suited to keep us moving in the same direction

We are going to need to continue to reduce our employee expenditures next year and this plan cuts one administrative position and will save over $150,000.

The only other administrative adjustments that I believe were necessary to help make this plan successful, which I recommended and the Board approved on Monday were:  Our 3rd Assistant Superintendent, Linda Low, will take on some additional responsibilities and become an Associate Superintendent; and Danelle Almarez will move from a Director I to a Director II (I think it is important that these two changes in title and responsibility come with only a $900 and $800 per year raise respectively).

The Board also asked that I stay involved as an Advisor.  I have agreed to be an Advisor to the Superintendent and Board for next year for not to exceed 40 days.  I will help with budget issues, our Arts Education Foundation, and whatever else they ask me to do.

I hope you are all celebrating this decision as I am.  We have scheduled an appointment at your school next week to introduce your new Superintendent and provide us an opportunity to make comments and answer questions.

Question:
Is it true that there are certain individuals in the district office that may receive a raise in salary this year? How is that justified in today's economy where we are making budget cuts in every area?

Answer:
I am happy to provide a little more clarification on the salary related items for this school year on the Board agenda.

• 10 teachers were approved to be paid stipends for this year related to BTSA for a total of $12,250.
• 30 teachers were approved for Supplemental Contracts for working at our Saturday Academies for a total of $21,700.
• 1 substitute teacher for Intervention Classes for $8,600.
• 1 Administrator is taking a reduction in pay rate and moving from full-time to 70% (Flor Hotchkiss).
• 1 Administrator is taking over Fiscal Services (with Flor’s departure) and receiving an additional $6,000 per year, while taking on the entire responsibility of the Fiscal Services department.

That is all of the changes on the Board Agenda for the 2011-12 school year. There are other items on the agenda regarding the 2012-13 school year which constitute a savings of over $150,000 in District administration costs per year.

Thank you for asking the question. This kind of rumor can be very hurtful.

Question:
The high school district is starting their year (2012-2013) earlier than in the past. I understand if the calendar has not yet been negotiated, but are we considering starting when they do? How soon will we know our start date for 2012-2013 school year? Thanks for your time.

Answer:
Thank you for the question. I have heard some of the rumors also and yours is one of several related questions that I received this week. Most of the high school and unified districts around us have moved to the earlier start date already. Some of the advantages for the high schools are:

1. The completion of the 1st semester at Winter Break and taking away the negative of having a break 3 weeks prior to finals, grading, etc.
2. More time for students to prepare for Advance Placement Exams, Graduation Exams, and other testing
3. The early start and finish dates provide a better alignment with the Universities and Community Colleges

In checking with Whittier Union, I am told that they have just begun the process of establishing their calendar and the current plan is for the first day of this coming 2012/13 school year to be August 22, 2012 and the first day of the 2013/14 school year is to be August 14, 2013. It appears to me that we will all need to start planning now for this change. Our school calendar is negotiable and our Board of Education and our Negotiating Teams have traditionally worked hard to keep our calendar similar to the high school for the starting of school and the Thanksgiving, Winter and Spring breaks. As a reminder to all, keeping our calendars together has many benefits for us. First is the benefit to our families, since many of our families have children attending school in both districts and a different school calendar would create many problems. Second is the need for our 8th grade students to be able to attend summer school at the high school upon their promotion to the 9th grade. If we ended our school year in mid-June as we do now and the high school ended their school year the end of May or first week in June, the high school Summer School program would start before our 8th graders were promoted. Not being able to attend Summer School at the high school would put our students at a serious disadvantage. Most incoming 9th graders take advantage of the high school summer school program and we want our students to have every advantage as they move to the high school. And, third is whenever the high school is not in session and we are, we lose significant income through the loss of ADA.

I have also been asked if this would give us more time to prepare for our state tests and the answer is no. STAR testing is required during a specific testing window, which is determined by the number of school days. So if we start school earlier, we test earlier.

I hope this helps as everyone makes their summer plans. We will try to put together some possible calendars for 2012/13 and 2013/14 for consideration by our negotiation teams as soon as possible.

Question:
If it came down to a choice between furlough days or an increase in co-pay, I only need one question answered to decide. When things improve, would I be correct in thinking the the furlough days would be easier rollback than a change in the co-pay? Thank you for your time in both answering this letter and for your generous devotion of time to the employees of the district.

Answer:
Thank you for the question. The issue is not really between furlough days and insurance. It is between insurance and laying off staff. The minimal change in insurance that has been negotiated represents an estimated savings of $2 million or about 29 teaching positions with minimal additional cost to employees. Every two Furlough days provide a savings of $600,000 or about 9 teaching positions and all of this savings comes directly from a reduction in employee salaries.

Question:
After reading the communique from the Bargaining Committee at 3 p.m. on Friday...What are your thoughts about the sensitivity used when addressing the outlook for the Counselor's jobs for the next school year? Although the the communique was upbeat and positive for the vast majority of the certificated staff, was there consideration for how this would have been received by the Counselors? For example, the Bargaining Committee cites the great possibly of loosing many of our "invaluable counselors" however then ended "we hope this news will alleviate many concerns and allow you to better enjoy your well deserved vacation!" Is this the practice of EWCSD to handle sensitive issues in such a manner?

Answer:
My thoughts, first I am aware of the fact that those who wrote this joint communiqué were making an effort to be very sensitive to our Counselors. I also believe that the feedback you provided with your Blog question will be helpful for them in the future. I understand they decided that it would be best to include the Counselors in this communiqué even though the information was not what any of us would like it to be. The truth is not always the easy thing to say. While the settlement mentioned in this communiqué allows us to keep all of our permanent employees supported by the general fund, we have employees that are funded fully or partially by categorical or grant funds that we have no control over. Similar to our Temporary Teachers, we hope to move these categorical/grant funded employees to a permanent contract when funding allows but, until that time, we can only provide them with year-to-year contracts. While that is definitely the downside of receiving Grants, I continue to believe that the pluses of having a job and serving students and their families outweigh the negatives when the funding for the Grant ends. There are many districts and Superintendents who refuse to apply for Grants because of this “downside.”
I hope this helps. We definitely want to be sensitive to all employees.

Question:
I am questioning whether or not the teachers at my grade level need to be on the exact same page, or worksheet each day? We already have our focus standards for the week in LA and Math, so isn't it important to structure our lessons in order to meet our students needs?

Answer:
I checked with Dr. Duron for an answer to your question. She says that the question of having teachers on the same page is very site specific. Our schools have very different populations and program configurations. What may be required at one site may be totally different for schools that do not have the same program or funding. For example, schools in program improvement have the most restrictions of all the schools due to their designation. There is virtually no flexibility at a program improvement school—these schools have specific targets to meet or they face heavy sanctions. On the other hand, schools without Title I funds, have significant flexibility. At non-Title I schools, as long as teachers focus on state standards and have common assessments points, there is wide flexibility regarding how the content is presented. In Title I schools, if funds are designated for specific interventions, teachers may need to follow a similar pacing guide to interface and coordinate services for students. Thus, I recommend that you meet with your principal and discuss this issue at the site level. Only the site administrator can provide the specific information that you seek.

I just want to sincerely wish you a very enjoyable and restful vacation. I know there are many religious celebrations occurring during our National Christmas holiday season and I wish you the merriest!!! I also look forward to another very successful year in 2012. You are the best and because of you, the students and families of the East Whittier City School District are truly blessed. Thank you.

Question:
The method of pay stub distribution is not confidential. Anyone picking up their pay stub at the front desk of the school office can see all your deductions and personal information when going through to find their pay stub. It would be nice if there was a way to make our pay stubs more confidential.

Answer:
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Hopefully you and others will see a change in the process to assure that employees who pick up their checks/pay stubs at the front desk of the school office will no longer be able to see your personal information. If this continues to be a problem, please notify Mary Branca in Personnel so that the individual school problem can be corrected.

Question:
What is the district policy on sticker tattoos on campus? I am seeing more and more elementary students (1st and 2nd graders) with tattoos on their forearms, shoulders and hands. One even came to school with one on her cheek. There is nothing about this in our student/parent handbook. Are we allowed to cover these tattoos with band aids as they are a distraction to the class?

Answer:
I went to Amy Larson, our Director of Child Welfare and Attendance, for answer to your question. While it is a long and detailed answer, I believe it should help you and others in understanding the legal aspects of this issue.

“When making a determination about any dress code issue, there must be a conscious balance between the need for a safe and orderly school and a student’s first Amendment rights. When looking at this issue, educators still defer to the landmark court case, Tinker vs. Des Moines (1969), for guidance. In this case, the Court stated that students do not “shed their constitutional rights when they enter the schoolhouse door.” However, school administrators have a greater ability to limit the speech of students than the government does to limit the speech of the general public.

California Education Code section 48907 states that students’ freedom of speech can be limited if is “…obscene, libelous, slanderous,… incites pupils to create a clear and present danger of the commission of unlawful acts on school premises or the violation of lawful school regulations, or the substantial disruption of the orderly operation of the school.”

When making a decision about whether a student has the right to wear temporary stickers/tattoos to school, an administrator would need to clearly be able to articulate how the act of wearing the stickers/ tattoos causes a substantial disruption to the orderly and safe operation of the school. In East Whittier, we have a dress code policy which prohibits students from wearing certain items due to concerns with modesty, safety, gang relatedness, or if it causes disruption to instruction. Stickers/temporary tattoos are not currently prohibited in our dress code policy. While you might be able to argue that it causes a slight disruption if a student wears a sticker/temporary tattoo on a part of their body that is visible, it would be hard to argue in court that a student wearing stickers/temporary tattoos causes a disruption that is so substantial that learning cannot occur. Many times these concerns can be resolved by simply either asking the student to remove the sticker/temporary tattoo or speaking to the parent about reducing distractions to learning to ensure their child’s greatest success. All parents want their children to succeed.”

Question:
What about the possibility of eliminating the Learning Specialist positions until the financial crisis is resolved? Perhaps they could absorb the jobs left vacant due to retirement/leaves and possibly save some classroom teachers.

Answer:
Certainly all jobs outside the classroom need to be looked at carefully as we explore options for reducing our employee costs. I, personally, see the role of the Learning Specialist in our elementary schools to be a very valuable position. Dr. Duron, our Assistant Superintendent of Educational Support Services wrote the following response:

“On the surface, the reassignment of learning specialists to the classroom seems like a logical move if you want to lower class size. However, the impact this position has on class size is not that significant. In an average elementary school the difference in class size with or without the specialist is at most two or three students per class. However, the service they provide is crucial. In an age of compliance, learning specialists complete many assessments, reports and documents mandated by various state and federal programs. The elimination of learning specialists would definitely require an organizational shift that would impact everyone at the school. The reports, documents and assessments will not go away--they will just need to be done by someone else. Most likely many of the duties that learning specialists currently provide would fall on classroom teachers. Due to external mandates, this would be the reality of eliminating the position.

Additionally, putting the learning specialists back into the classroom would only increase the number of "pink slips" given to newer teachers. Learning specialists in most cases have substantial seniority and would bump newer staff. This position is certainly something that should be up for consideration, as are all other major expenditures, but it is something that would have major consequences at the elementary level if eliminated.”

Question:
What can we do this year to help our future outlook? Can we take more furlough days this year? Go to 4 longer day weeks instead of 5 shorter days- no utilities used at any sites the 5th day.

Answer:
Thank you for asking. As was noted in the EWEA/District Negotiations Joint Communique, “we are budgeted to spend $8.7 million more this year than we will receive in income from the State. As a result, the bargaining teams are faced with the serious challenge of closing this gap. While it is our desire to do so with the least amount of adverse impact on everyone, it will be necessary to make money-saving adjustments.” This communiqué goes on to list what other districts have done, they are:
· Increasing furlough days
· Increasing employee cost for health benefits
· Freezing step and/or column
· Cutting the salary schedule across the board
· Increasing class size (making layoffs necessary)

I join you in hoping that we can make whatever decisions we can this year to help our future outlook. While some very rural areas across the country have moved to 4 longer days per week because of the tremendous savings from reduced transportation, this type of change would actually save us very little, while potentially decreasing our income tremendously as I believe many of our families would chose to move their children to neighboring districts because of the need for a 5 day per week program for their children. We have seen this phenomena in the recent past when the districts around us offered all day Kindergarten and we didn’t. That year we dropped in Kindergarten enrollment by over 50 students. Then the very next year, when we moved to all day Kindergarten, our Kindergarten enrollment increased by over 150 students.

Question:
Rumor has it that you are no longer receiving pay for your service as superintendent. Hard to believe but can't help but wonder?

Answer:
Thank you very much for bringing rumors to this Blog. Relative to my status, I shared with everyone earlier that the Board was applying for an exemption that would allow me to make 50% of my salary and I would complete the responsibilities of the Superintendent. Because of recent Pension Reform legislation, while I could make the 50% if I chose to work for a different district, I was not eligible for this exemption in my own district. As a result the Board’s request was denied by STRS. That denial made my earnings limitation $31,000, as it is for all STRS retirees without an exemption. Since I had already earned this limit I was left with a decision based upon this new information. My decision was to stay with my commitment to the district to continue as the Superintendent through the rest of this school year. So, the short answer, Yes, as of November 9, 2011, I am no longer receiving pay for my service as Superintendent. I am collecting my retirement and I am receiving district health benefits but I am not receiving any income.

Question:
If one gets a pink slip but hasn't reached retirement age. Will retirement be transferred to next district for next job?

Answer:
The simple answer is yes, pink slip refers to the notice that is sent to Certificated employees in March saying that they may not be hired back next year. For retirement purposes, certificated employees are members of the State Teachers Retirement System (STRS), and all their STRS contributions and unused sick leave are transferred to other public school districts in California.

Question:
I have a few questions regarding temporary teachers. 1. How many temporary teachers work for EWCSD? 2. How can a temporary teacher obtain a probationary contract? 3. Will temporary teachers be placed on a list similar to the probationary/tenured teacher seniority list? Rumor has it that in case certificated teaching positions are cut, the seniority list will be worked through first when jobs open up. After the probationary/tenured teachers are rehired, will temporary teachers be randomly hired back or will there be a similar type of seniority list? It is understood that the district is under no obligation to treat temporary teachers as more than just “temporary,” but being the close-knit professional community that we are, I was wondering if EWCSD had plans to do more for these valuable members of our team.

Answer:
This year we are required to have 21 teachers working on temporary assignments. All 21 know that their contracts are temporary. We have an equivalent number of tenured teachers on leaves of absence for various personal reasons. Temporary teachers are offered a probationary contract as soon as possible depending on their assignment, credentials, principal recommendation, etc. However, at this time we do not know what will be happening next year. As I shared in previous Blogs, our negotiation teams are currently working on ways to reduce our costs and save jobs.

I agree with you that our temporary teachers are valuable members of our team. However, there is no seniority list for temporary teachers. All are equally valuable.

Question:
Given the recent news that the State will be facing a $3.7 billion budget shortfall on January 1, and the subsequent triggering of $2 billion in automatic cuts, how do you see this impacting the district during this current school year? Also, how will the district be impacted after the turn of the new fiscal year, July 1, when an additional $10 billion deficit is expected?

Answer:
I asked David to post this answer ahead of others that are waiting their turn because I assume many of you are concerned about this issue.

If the state “pulls the trigger” and reduces our income in the middle of the year, we will NOT have any mid-year layoffs. Our negotiation teams anticipated the possibility of a mid-year reduction in income last year when they set aside for consideration the last two days of the school year, as possible furlough days. We also have enough reserves to cover the shortfall but I think we all realize that less income without a reduction in expenditures means increased deficit spending. I believe our teams will look at every option as they work for all of us in finding the least hurtful resolutions to our continued reduction in income both for the current year and the years to come.

I will speak more about next year later. A lot can happen between now and then.

Question:
Several years ago I was summoned to jury duty, however, I told the court that I was a teacher and had my duty changed to summer so that I did not have to prepare for a substitute and the court was very accommodating to change the date I was supposed to serve. Might be a way for other teachers to avoid jury duty during the school year.

Answer:
I am glad to hear that you put off your jury duty until the summer. I have also done that several times and the court has always been accommodating. As mentioned in a previous blog, by our contract, postponing jury duty until the summer does not save the district money because we pay our teachers the sub rate for jury duty service taken during the summer. However I am sure we all appreciate the fact that it is much better for our students to have our teachers take their jury duty service during the summer.

Question:
What is happening with the district’s Art Education Foundation?

Answer:
I am very pleased to let everyone know that because of the generosity of our staff, the East Whittier Arts Education Foundation has donated the funds needed to cover the costs of one of our part-time elementary music teachers for this year. The Foundation is also planning two fundraisers this year, a Pageant of the Masters event and a 1st annual Alumni/Hall of Fame event. We are hopeful that these fundraisers along with the annual giving that we generate from our staff and community (approximately $25,000 per year so far) will allow the Foundation to provide even more funds to cover district Arts Education staff next year. We now have 3 event sponsors, Schools First Credit Union, Credit Union of Southern California, and Friendly Hills Bank. If any of you know of companies or businesses that would be willing to help sponsor our events, please let me know.

My thanks to all of you who donate to the East Whittier Arts Education Foundation.

Question:
I can't thank you enough for truly putting teachers first and for always remaining aware of the emotional distress pink slips cause. It's nice to know that if we are pink slipped, it is not by somebody who didn't even think twice before doing so. We are truly fortunate to have you as our superintendent. You probably won't post this but I hope you do.

Answer:
While I have received several very complimentary communications and have appreciated them immensely, I have not posted them. However, I decided to post this one. You are very kind and I can assure you and everyone else that issuing pink slips is not something I want to do. That is why I have encouraged our negotiation teams to settle on whatever options they can as soon as possible, hopefully averting the need to send out pink slips.

Question:
Dr. Gillentine, I have had the opportunity to work with the East Whittier City School District for the past five years. I am a part time permanent employee as well as a substitute aid. In working as a substitute, I have had the pleasure of working with children who have disabilities. These children are beautiful individuals with their own personalities who have taught me to see the world through their eyes and minds. In working with these children, I have come to dislike a term that is often used throughout the schools in the district. The term is known as “S H”, as in severely handicapped. I understand that Federal Laws require labeling for students to be eligible for special education however, in working in the “S H” classes, I have come upon the fact that NOT all children are severely handicapped, in fact some of the children are currently mainstreaming. Although the classes were probably labeled in this term many years prior, the term handicap can now be defined in many ways. Handicap pertains to the environment as in “handicapped access” and in the game of Golf, one would ask about each other’s “handicap”. This term does not define the children’s individualism and uniqueness, yet to many who have not thought much about the term; it may define the assumption of what the children are incapable of which can lead to rejection or ridicule by peers, especially as they enter the teen years. I am asking the district to please think about changing the name of our “S H” classes to a less derogatory term, for example, "Exceptional Children”. This term falls into a larger category for children with disabilities such as, Intellectual Disabilities, Autism, Visual and Hearing Impairments, Multiple Disabilities and so on. I understand this change may not be possible, however, with faith and support, anything is possible. I thank you for your time in reading this letter and all you do in providing a healthy and exceptional learning environment for all children.

Answer:
We all need to be sensitive to our children and their needs. Whatever their situation, whether it be gifted or severely disabled, they are still children in need of being cared for and educated. Thank you for writing. The following is from Linda Low, our Assistant Superintendent of Student Services:

“We started calling all of our classes SDC's 2 years ago because we want placements to be based on student needs, not labels, but it takes a while to change everyday vocabulary. It is also difficult to change it entirely because of issues related to teacher credentialing.”

Question:
Cost savings. Jury duty is a requirement we all (may)have as a duty. However, throughout the times I've been involved in this duty, I've seen judges dismiss all (potential) jurists from duty if their company or organization did not pay for jury duty. If EWCSD went with this same policy, (Not paying for jury-duty) this could reduce Sub-teacher payroll and should be a sizable savings to the budget.

Answer:
The answer to this question comes from Mary Branca and Victoria Mooradian:

Mary says:
"There is Ed Code (44037) that says it is unlawful for the governing board of any school district to adopt or maintain any rule, regulation, or policy to encourage employees to seek exemption from jury duty. Our board policy currently grants up to 10 days of paid leave for jury duty. Our collective bargaining agreement with EWEA offers an incentive for employees to postpone their jury duty to a time when a sub would not be required -- such as winter or spring break or summer. This is not a cost savings for the district, but it does provide for better continuity of program for our students."

And Vicki says:
"I have a spreadsheet where I track teachers time out for Jury Duty for reimbursement purposes. Jury Duty for the 2010/11 school year was $11,570.”

Thanks for asking. We all benefit as we learn more about our income and expenditures.

Question:
Who determines the amount of assessment and progress monitoring for curriculum alignment? Is it at the discretion of a site principal or the district? Although we are teaching "target standards", it seems that the pre-test, post-test, progress monitoring and re-test along with our current curriculum assessments are taking a lot of valuable instructional time.

Answer:
Dr. Duron has provided the answer to your question. Thank you for asking.

This a great question that unfortunately does not have a simple answer. All school districts receiving federal funds (Title I, Title II, Title III, ARRA, etc.) are required to implement research-based practices, and also ensure that all students are growing in relation to state standards. Additionally, any school receiving special funding must also track the effectiveness of program interventions. Furthermore, there are mandates for all schools to implement an effective RTI process that supports all students. The steps taken by the schools and the district to meet these guidelines must be delineated in a LEA plan that is submitted to the state. The plan is monitored through the compliance review process and periodic site visits are made to selected schools at the discretion of the state department. This all culminates in schools meeting annual AYP targets and targets for EL students known as AMAOs.

Our district established a curriculum alignment process to help meet the required mandates. It is a research-based practice that is data driven and has some common components across the schools. At each school, teachers develop a matrix that maps the key standards for the year. There are five to six units that are covered prior to the CST and one ramp-up unit after the test. The implementation of the matrix is a collaborative process between the school and district. Once the targets are in place, there are school-developed-common assessments at the end of each unit. The common assessments are then used to plan interventions for students not mastering the curriculum. The interventions are tiered with the first intervention(s) being in the classroom. Next, there are designated times during the day to focus on students needing more support or enrichment (universal access). The tiered process must document several layers of intervention prior to referrals for special education services.

Although the basic design is similar from school to school, the level of implementation may differ based on categorical funding and target populations. If you are a school in program improvement, there are many more requirements, and the process is much more targeted. If you have special programs such as Title I, QEIA, EIA, etc., there are specific requirements for each sub-group that may trigger additional assessments. Consequently, there is no easy answer to your question without knowing the circumstances.

To further complicate this situation, many teachers do not want to give up certain tests that they have used for years-this is especially true in the primary grades. Thus, this adds additional assessments that are self-imposed.

This year, the district is emphasizing the importance of checking for understanding. This involves formative assessment. Formative assessment is not just paper and pencil tasks. In essence, a formative assessment is any strategy that a teacher uses to continually check for understanding—it is done in a variety of ways. We know from research that checking for understanding is one of the most critical elements in the learning process. In fact, increasing instructional time without a targeted focus (and without a continual check for understanding) results in minimal instructional growth. To determine the instructional focus of any given lesson, you need some type of formative assessment.

With all of this said, there may be many misunderstandings related to this issue. I recommend that you discuss the issues of assessment at your site with your Principal. The additional assessment that you are describing may be driven by external programmatic needs or it may be self imposed by the teachers. It seems that it is something that needs to be discussed for continual program improvement and effective implementation of RTI.

Question:
Are there certain dates that pink slips go out for classified and certified? If they are sent out.

Answer:
Yes, and Mary Branca has provided the specific legal requirements:

“If we do layoffs, notices (commonly called “pink slips”) must be given to employees, but the dates differ.

Classified employees must receive 45 calendar days notice before their layoff is effective.

For certificated employees, there are some differences on when notices must be given. Probationary and permanent certificated staff receive preliminary layoff notices no later than March 15 of the current year to be effective for the following school year. Final layoff notices for probationary and permanent certificated employees are given no later than May 15 of the current year to be effective for the following school year. Temporary certificated employees may be released prior to the end of the school year without going through a layoff procedure. Also, certificated employees in categorically funded programs, much like temporary employees, may be released when the funding for the specially funded program expires without going through the layoff procedure.”

As much as I want to comment more on this question, I will just say that I found out today that in addition to the emotional hurt that this layoff process brings to all of us, there are legal costs required by this process that I would like to avoid. I sincerely hope that we can come up with other ways to close our revenue/expenditure gap.

Question:
Has the district ever taken a full, extensive inventory of books/supplies and re-distributed them based on specific needs of schools instead of purchasing new supplies/books and having closets full of extras laying around year after year?

Answer:
While textbook purchases come from very restricted funds that cannot be used for anything else, we are trying to save as much of these funds as possible to help us pay for the new adoptions when they are required. However, I appreciate your question and Dr. Duron has provided the answer:

“Last year we conducted an extensive inventory of books across the district. In several situations we redistributed books. Unfortunately we have two different elementary reading programs in the district, and it complicates the distribution of books. Several of the schools with growth did not have the same program as schools with declining enrollments. We are working to save money in all areas and only books needed to meet the Williams requirements were purchased.”

Question:
How did the district save in revenue with the added furlough days?

Answer:
All employees worked two days less last year and two days less this year. The common term across the state for working less days than your normally contracted year is furlough days. During the first year of this recession, the state of California passed a law that allowed schools to reduce their days of instruction from 180 to 175 without a loss of income. Many districts made that move by the next school year. We waited until the 3rd year of the recession and then negotiated 2 days to reduce our instructional days from 180 to 178. As we prepared for this year we again negotiated the continuance of the same two days and our instructional calendar this year again has 178 days. Last year the negotiation teams left the possibility of an additional two furlough days, the last two days of the school year, to be considered this year. Since our gap between income and expenditures for salaries and benefits is so large, the negotiation teams will, I am sure, be looking at multiple options as they work together to help keep our district afloat during these very difficult financial times.

With that said, furlough days have nothing to do with revenue. Our revenue stays that same as long as we provide a minimum of 175 instructional days for our students. However, furlough days do provide a savings in expenditures. Each furlough day saves the district approximately $305,000. So our two furlough days this year are saving the district over $610,000. To help us further see the benefit of these two furlough days, $610,000 is the equivalent of almost 10 teaching positions or one teacher less for each of our elementary schools. Additional information that hopefully will be helpful; 2 furlough days is equivalent to approximately 1% of salary. Or another way to look at it, if everyone works two less days and takes home 1% less in pay, then it saves 10 teachers from losing their jobs and 100% of their pay. Not to mention, of course, that 10 less teachers means every teacher has more students because their 200 to 300 students are distributed amongst the remaining teachers’ classes.

To better understand the magnitude of our financial situation; we are budgeted to spend approximately $8 million more this year than we will receive in income from the state. However, I do not like pointing that figure out without also mentioning that the state is deficiting our income, i.e., showing on our state income forms what we should be getting and then deficiting that amount by over 19% or $11 million in on-going funding.

Question:
If you do have to start letting classified staff go next year (as stated in your last answer), will the lay offs go by seniority or the type of position? What if that person's position has been cut but they have a lot of seniority in the district?

Answer:
Hopefully we will come up with other ways to reduce employees costs but your question used the important word “If,” so I asked Mary Branca what the process would be and the following is her response:

“Layoffs go first by position and then by seniority. Layoff procedures, which are listed in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the District and CSEA, are followed. There are many details listed in the CBA in Article XXVI. The CBA is on the District website.

A regular employee who is laid off may exercise displacement rights (bumping) within his/her current classification or in any lower class in which they hold more seniority than someone who is currently working in that lower class. However, employees may not bump any employee who has more hours or specialized skills such as bilingualism or Discreet Trials training.”

I hope this is helpful, and I sincerely hope this is not necessary or at least minimized. It is still very early in the budgeting process and I have a lot of faith in our negotiating teams as they use the Interest-Based Bargaining process to generate alternatives and come up with recommendations.

Question:
There have been a lot of rumors circulating that the district has run out of money and that there will be a lot of pink slips given this year to both certified and classified staff. Can you comment on this because it seems as if these rumors are valid concerns?

Answer:
Thank you for bringing rumors to this blog so that we can all be on the same page. First, the district has not run out of money. For this school year we continue to operate with the required 3% Reserve for Economic Uncertainties and have additional “money in the bank” set aside for one-time expenses/projects. However, it is also true that the state has now deficited our Revenue Limit income by over 19% or $11 million and we cannot meet our budget for the next school year without making a significant reduction in our employee expenditures. When I made my presentation on the budget last year I shared about the fact that we were budgeted to spend more on employee salaries and benefits than we were to receive in income for the year. We offered the Retirement Incentive and managed to save a few positions and our current budget has us at 99.73% salaries and benefits to income. Obviously we still have to come up with ways to make additional cost savings or we will be forced to layoff staff. Fortunately both our unions and the district are negotiating new contracts this year so I am confident that these teams will work collaboratively to make the difficult decisions required in order to meet our budget demands.

Clearly this recession has gone on longer than any of us anticipated. We have managed to keep our class sizes relatively low and our salaries stable. At the same time we all recognize that most of our neighbors have had to lay off teachers, significantly raise class sizes, reduce salaries and require a minimum of 5 furlough days. As I shared last year and it remains true today, unless our income increases considerably we are going to be required to make a significant reduction in expenditures for employee salaries and benefits, which may require us to make the reductions that others made 2 and 3 years ago. While I do not know what the answer is, I do know that one of the reasons I stayed on the job this year was to do everything I could to minimize the potential loss of jobs to our employees. In addition to continuing to maximize our savings through attrition (not filling vacant positions whenever possible), we are continuing to look for ways to increase our income. Our increase in student enrollment is definitely a move in the right direction. My sincere appreciation to all of you as we focus on student learning during these very difficult financial times.

Question:
I am wondering if the district has even looked into installing solar panels. We have them on our home and our meter actually runs backward - meaning we don't pay anything other than taxes (about $2 a month). Obviously this would be very expensive to do but the cost savings would be immense. Are there any types of grants we could apply for that would enable us to do this at some of our sites? There is also the possibility of renting solar panels from some companies. This is what we do with our home. You rent for 15 years and pay a rate less than what your electric bill would be. The solar company usually installs free of charge and will provide free up keep as well. I'm just wondering if this has been looked into at some point.

Answer:
The district has been looking into solar for several years. Thanks to a Federal grant program we are currently working with a company to bring a proposal to the Board to put Solar Panels on each of our district sites. The projection, based on current numbers, is that we will save $27 million over a 25 year period, with a $900,000 savings in the first year. Thank you for the question.

Question:
Noticing that different schools have different kinder hours, Who determines kindergarten hours at each site? Is it district or school principals?

Answer:
While this appears to me to be a parent question, I will again assume it comes from one of our staff since many of our staff are parents of children in our schools. The answer to the question is both simple and complex. The simple answer is that the principal determines the exact schedule for all grades at the school. However, that decision might be a little different for each grade level, it must meet specific minimum time criteria, and it must be approved annually by our district Board of Education. Dr. Duron provided a look into what goes into the decisions that our principals make in setting the starting and ending times for each school:

“What must be taken into consideration is that each school has different circumstances that impact the schedule. In some schools, the lunch program is very large, and it takes a long time to feed the students in the cafeteria. This impacts the schedule. At other sites, you have many unsupervised students at the end of the day, thus you have all students dismissed at one time. In this situation, you may add an additional afternoon recess that allows all students to be dismissed at the same time. At other sites, it is better to dismiss primaries before the upper grades to make it a safe environment at dismissal time. There are just many issues and unique circumstances that impact the schedule. Consequently, the schedule is adjusted to meet the needs of the children and parents within the school community. All the schools have the required number of minutes--the business office checks to make sure all are correct. Beyond ensuring that people have the correct number of minutes in the day, principals do have the flexibility to work out schedules that are optimal for their students.”

Question:
A question that we often ask each other at my site is..."Is recess duty even legal?" We've heard from some subs that many sites within our district don't have teachers on recess duty. Not that it matters what others are or aren't doing. We are happy to fulfill ALL of our obligations to our students but would feel better knowing...Is recess duty even legal?

Answer:
You asked an interesting question and Mary Branca has provided the answer:
“Yes, recess duty is legal. Ed Code 44807 states that it is a teachers duty to hold pupils to a strict account for their conduct … on the playgrounds, or during recess…Our contract with EWEA states that when regular duty assignments prevent taking a lavatory break, a plan or schedule shall be developed by the site administrator which shall ensure that all certificated employees have the opportunity for a break.

There is no Ed Code that requires a duty free break period for teachers other than at lunch. Ed Code 44813 states that each teacher shall be allowed a duty free lunch period.”

I sincerely appreciate your comment about being “happy to fulfill ALL of our obligations to our students” as we all work together to meet the needs of our students and meet our first priority, a state constitutional requirement, to keep our students safe.

Question:
Many of us parents are concerned about the new kindergarten entry age, mostly because it separates some of our children in school a whole year more than planned. Some of us have had children in preschool for two years but they still wont make the new cut-off dates. Will there be any exceptions made by the district for allowing fall birthdays to enter regular kinder early and not transitional kinder. Some sort of assessment, guideline or procedure put in place for those of us who believe our children are ready for kindergarten despite the new cut-off dates?

Answer:
Since this Blog is on our Staff Web Portal, I assume you are a staff member who is also a parent. My understanding of the new law is that we may not have any flexibility until the child reaches their 5th birthday; at that time we could move them from a transitional K class to a regular Kindergarten class, with a parent request, an assessment of the Principal and Teacher and a determination by the Principal that this was in the best interest of the student. For next year we would only be talking about those children born between November 2nd and December 2nd. We are waiting for more clarification from the state. When it comes to school entry, the district does not have any flexibility. We must follow the law, however I can assure you that we will do everything we can within the law to work with our families to provide the best educational opportunity for our students.

Question:
It has come to our attention that parents are not allowed to walk their children to class. Some students have been showing signs of stress since this change. Can we compromise with the parents and allow parents to walk them through the halls. Happy children make for a happy class.

Answer:
I asked each of the principals about this practice and no changes in past practice were reported. As a result I am not sure which school you were referring to with your question of “since this change.” I agree completely with your statement that “Happy children make for a happy class” and every principal reported that they are very sensitive to children showing any signs of stress as they join their class in the morning. If you want more information, please speak with your principal or write me with more clarification.

Question:
During this time of financial distress, a lot of teachers are wondering why we have unnecessary jobs being paid out of title 1 money. Nothing against these teachers, but shouldn't these teachers be put back in the classroom and help save schools and district money?

Answer:
Dr. Duron was on vacation when I answered this originally and I thought she added insight that would be helpful to everyone. She wrote: “Additionally, a significant portion of the Title I funds MUST be used for staff development (Title I mandate). The teachers on special assignment help us comply with these staff development mandates. If we do not use our teachers we must use outside consultants. We feel our teachers know our needs and are more effective than outside consultants.”

I am sure that we are all in agreement that we would rather use our own teachers and not have to pay outside consultants! My thanks to Dorka for her added perspective and for the outstanding leadership in curriculum and instruction that she provides.

Question:
Are CST scores part of a teacher's evaluation now? If so, is this District wide and when was it decided? I would like to believe that all teacher's are evaluated in the same way?

Answer:
Thank you for your question. We have made no changes to our teacher’s evaluation forms or requirements. The following is from Personnel:

All our teachers are evaluated using the evaluation form that was negotiated in 2008 with EWEA. This evaluation form reflects the six California Standards for the Teaching Profession, which are: 1)Engaging and Supporting All Student Learning; 2)Creating and Maintaining an Effective Environment for Student Learning; 3) Understanding and Organizing Subject Matter for Student Learning; 4) Planning Instruction and Designing Learning Experiences for All Students; 5) Assessing Student Learning; and 6) Developing as a Professional Educator.

The basis for our form is from the original Stull Bill, Education Code 44662, enacted in 1971, which requires that all teachers be evaluated in five major performance areas: student progress; learning environment, curricular adherence; techniques and strategies; and related responsibilities. Our District has not formally required CST scores to be a part of a teacher’s evaluation, however they are one of many ways to measure student progress and certainly can be used as a way to show student progress.

I would add that I am very proud of the work our teachers are doing across the district. Our Educational Services Division is also to be commended. The question is no longer “how good our lesson was” (how we teach), but “did our students learn.” This is the measure of our success since we all entered our teaching career to make a difference for our students. Thank you all for continuing to make that extra effort to help our students learn. Of course I would be remiss to not express appreciation to all of our support personnel because each district division is critical to any success that we see in improving student achievement.

Question:
During this time of financial distress, a lot of teachers are wondering why we have unnecessary jobs being paid out of title 1 money. Nothing against these teachers, but shouldn't these teachers be put back in the classroom and help save schools and district money?

Answer:
Since I have not heard from any Principals regarding teachers doing “unnecessary jobs being paid out of Title 1 money,” I would sincerely ask that you and the others that you are referring to, speak directly to your Principal. This is definitely a “time of financial distress” and if you are seeing things that others are not seeing, providing your input as to better ways to utilize our very scarce resources is much appreciated. Just to be sure that we are all on the same page relative to the use of these Title 1 funds, I asked Educational Support Services and here is their answer:

“Title I provides supplemental funds to be used to narrow the achievement gap for disadvantaged students. Funds can be used for support personnel (such as literacy coaches), intervention programs, parent involvement and staff development. Title I must provide supplemental services and cannot be used for basic services.”

I hope this helps as you continue your efforts at helping the district maximize our resources and our educational opportunity for our students. Certainly none of us want to see any of these specialized funds misused.

Question:
Is the new kindergarten entry date of November 1st a sure thing for the 2012/13 school year? Will there be any means offered to start fall birthday kids early?

Answer:
For your first question: To date there have not been any efforts legislatively to repeal this law and the cut off for K enrollment next year, 2012/13, is November 1st. This means that a child who turns 5 after November 1, 2012 will not be able to start Kindergarten until the following school year. This same law moves the cutoff date to October 1 for the 2013/14 school year and finally September 1 for the 2014/15 school year.

For your second question: Decisions will be made some time this year about offering a “Kindergarten Readiness” class or some other type of Pre Kindergarten class that would allow the younger students to start school while expecting that they will enter the regular Kindergarten class the following year. The law, as written, allows districts to offer this class and receive full funding. There has been much talk about new legislation that would take away this funding. If the state continues to fund this type of program, I believe it would be in the district’s best interest to offer the program to our students and their families. However, if the state does not fund the program we could not afford to incur the additional expense. Our understanding is that most districts in the state are moving slowly in this area due to the uncertainty of funding.