ESCONDIDO SCHOOLS TO CUT $10.2M NEXT YEAR

District plans no layoffs, unfilled jobs eliminated, some teachers reassigned

ESCONDIDO

The Escondido Union School District plans to trim $10.2 million from next year’s budget, in response to news that the state is not likely to increase school funding this year.

School officials said, however, that they will not lay off staff in order to make the cuts, but instead will eliminate unfilled positions, and will redeploy some special assignment teachers back to the classroom.

“It was very important to me and to the board, that we not put people onto the street,” Superintendent Luis Rankins-ibarra said. “People are still employed, but they may just be doing something different.”

California school district budgets were gutted after the 2008 financial crisis, but the state Legislature has gradually added back funds in recent years. Before the COVID-19 closures, the district had expected a cost of living increase of 2.9 percent for the 2020-21 fiscal year, along with additional specialeducation funding, based on earlier state budget forecasts. However, those increases are probably off the table because of deep losses to state revenue as a result of the pandemic, said Michael Taylor, assistant superintendent of business services.

“Essentially, we are getting less revenue, north of $4 million,” he said.

The district had already planned to cut $5.9 million in order to reduce a deficit in the budget due to declining enrollment. Instead, it will have to make steeper cuts in order to pay its bills and meet the required 4 percent reserve for the next three years, as required by state law.

Under the new plan, it will be able to do that, officials said. A number of staff members left recently under retirement incentives, they said, so the district won’t backfill those positions.

“It doesn’t mean that the work those employees were doing will go away,” Ibarra said. “We’re just going to redistribute the work. This is not ideal.”

In effect, the elimination of those positions will reduce the teaching force by 24 positions, including 15 elementary and nine middle school positions, said Leila Sackfield, deputy superintendent of human resources. Initial plans to pull those positions would have created disruption at virtually every campus, forcing larger class sizes and mixed

grade classrooms, she said.

“I have to tell you, it looked pretty ugly: many, many combination classrooms,” she said. “Teachers don’t like that, parents don’t like that. What has always been a priority for us is making sure our classroom sizes stay at a relatively small.”

Instead, she said, the district will reassign intervention teachers and other specialists back to classroom teaching positions, she said.

The district will offer fullday kindergarten at all school sites next year, a change that comes with a $2 million price tag, but is expected to increase enrollment. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic is generating new costs, such as cleaning supplies and services, but some savings in utilities, materials, supplies, and other expenses.

As the district plans its budget for next year, it is also looking at the results of its remote learning programs, introduced in response to the closures. The district already had one-to-one mobile devices for all students in third grade and up, and is ordering new ipads for kindergarten through secondgraders. However, Internet access has been an obstacle, and the district has identified 2,700 families without home Internet connections, and is working with Cox Communications to secure free Internet for many of those families.

In the meantime, schools have provided paper alternatives for those who can’t access online lessons.

“We knew that we had to provide another alternative for our families,” Ibarra said. “We had the high-tech plan, but we knew we also needed a no-tech plan. So we distribute packets every Friday.”

During the first week of closures, Escondido schools distributed about 4,000 packets and in the second week that rose to 5,300, officials said. Last week, the number of packets dropped to 3,000, which officials hope means that more students are connecting to school online. In the coming weeks, the district will monitor student participation, and reach out to families of students who aren’t involved in remote learning.

The efforts to quickly build a distance-learning system has been an exercise in improvisation, and can’t take the place of in-person instruction, Ibarra said.

“When teachers venture in a direction like this, you spend about a year planning,” he said. “Is it perfect? By no means. This whole situation is not perfect. There is no replacement for the teacher in front of the students for seven hours a day. But we’re doing the best that we can.”