Schools still come up short in Schwarzenegger's latest budget

Elk Grove teachers won't have the guidance of experienced teaching coaches next fall. A gleaming new school in Natomas will sit empty. And in Sacramento, middle schools will have fewer music classes and high school teachers will have less time to run special programs like athletics and honors academics.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's May budget proposal gives more money to schools than he suggested in January, and meets the minimum guarantee schools are owed under state law. And his latest proposal increases school spending next year by $200 million over this year – but it's an amount education advocates say is paltry compared with their needs.

The governor's latest budget proposal doesn't cover the higher costs schools will face next year for things such as gasoline, health care and raises for teachers as they advance in experience, said David Gordon, superintendent of Sacramento County schools. So districts are trimming other parts of their budgets to keep up.

"That is a big cut when you're not kept even with the inflationary factors," Gordon said.

"You have to cut other things to keep marching in place."

The Legislature has not yet approved next year's budget, which determines how much money schools will actually get. But school districts are busy cutting expenses now because they must finalize their own budgets by the end of June.

In Sacramento's Land Park neighborhood, where hundreds of parents packed a meeting at McClatchy High School last week, the school budget situation has reached a crescendo. Parents are concerned that cuts are endangering the school's prestigious Humanities and International Studies Program, known as HISP.

The teacher who runs the program spends three periods a day doing that job. Next year, Sacramento City Unified School District officials have proposed, she will have one period (and teach the other two).

The change is part of a larger strategy to save money by getting rid of about 85 teachers and making the remaining teachers spend more time in the classroom and less time running special programs.

"Every time a teacher is released from a class there's another teacher that has to backload it," said Associate Superintendent Susan Miller. "We essentially need two teachers for one class of students. … As we looked at staffing we found that yes, we could tighten up."

Officials have also proposed cutting back the number of periods a Kennedy High School teacher gets to run the Program in America and California Explorations (PACE) and the amount of time athletic directors get to run sports programs at various high schools.

Those changes – combined with filling classes to capacity – would save the district about $6.5 million.

Sacramento City Unified plans to save a bit more money by laying off three music teachers and cutting the number of music classes at several middle schools. California, Fern Bacon, Kit Carson, Rosa Parks and Will C. Wood middle schools will have two periods of music instead of four or five. That means beginner and intermediate programs will be combined, or that schools will offer either band or orchestra – instead of both.

Miller said the district is trying to trim its budget by scaling programs back rather than eliminating them.

Elk Grove Unified took another tack. Originally, the district proposed laying off kindergarten and high school teachers and making classes bigger. But after a firestorm of opposition from parents of kindergartners, it is keeping small classes for its youngest students and increasing class size only for high schoolers. The district will lay off 50 teachers at its high schools, for a savings of $1.6 million.

Elk Grove Unified is also getting rid of all teaching coaches, to cut another $1.9 million from its budget. The 28 coaches work with teachers on their classroom techniques. Associate Superintendent Richard Odegaard said the extra training they provide is one reason the district's students are meeting No Child Left Behind's test score targets.

"Getting rid of the coaches – that's like eating your seed corn," he said. "They're part of the reason we've had success."

Natomas Unified has managed to trim its budget without laying off any teachers. Instead, the district is putting off opening the new H. Allen Hight Middle School that has already been built, for a savings of $1.2 million.

Natomas is also trying to save money on school lunches by improving the food it offers at its high schools. The hope is that with tastier choices, more kids will buy lunch and offset the money the district now spends to keep cafeterias afloat. The district is looking at opening Mexican or Italian food stations at Natomas High.

"More students will simply buy lunch," said Superintendent Steve Farrar. "We're hoping (they) will not bring lunch from home."

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