News Impacting CA School Districts Through September 3
Federal News
Five East Bay school districts — including Oakland, Mt. Diablo and West Contra Costa expect to receive nearly $45 million in federal School Improvement Grants to reform a dozen of the lowest-achieving schools in the state.
Sacramento News
As expected, both houses of the Legislature soundly rejected two competing state budget plans, leaving California without a spending plan 62 days into the fiscal year.
With the end of the legislature session came a flurry of bills including one to rollback the entry age of kindergarteners and another that targets parents of chronically truant kids in K-8. CTA flexed its power on defeated a Steinberg bill that would have put a cap on the amount of teachers poor schools are permitted to lay off.
Reforming State and Local Governance
Here is a novel idea. Use the baseball arbitration method to establish a state budget.
Heard the Whitman ad about the need to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse where she cites 150 workers in the California Department of Education that are working on programs it no longer administers? Well, there is more to the story.
A small victory in pension reform. After six amendments and a personal crusade by a Contra Costa Times reporter, AB1987 was passed. The bill doesn’t affect the state’s largest pension programs; it only deals with rules for 20 county-level retirement systems but it is a start.
School District Impacts
The Saddleback Valley Unified School District unilaterally imposed an average 13.5 percent pay cut on all of its non-teaching, classified employees Tuesday, after nearly a year of failed contract negotiations with union leaders.
For years, Orange County schools have been slicing and dicing to save money – decimating arts and sports, slashing teaching and counseling jobs, even closing some campuses for good. This year, they’re deploying a new strategy to conserve on cash – shortening the school year itself.
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