Galt Forum

Please note that the cuts to the Ag Dept merely took back a period off for each teacher. No real money was saved. They just worked one more period. Minimal cuts were made.


NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of Trustees of the Galt Joint
Union High School District:
1. That ail of the foregoing recitals are irue and correct.
2. That the particular kinds of certificated services shall be reduced or eliminated not
later than the end of the 20Q9-201A school year as follows:
A. Regular High School Teaching Services:
1. Nlath 1.0 FTE
2. Science 1.0 FTE
3. Language Arts 2.0 F"fE
4. Social Studies 1.0 FTE
5. Drama 1.0 FTE
6. Business Technical 1.0 FTE
7. German Language 1.0 FTE
8. Health Careers .40 FTE
9. English Roving Substitute 1.0 FTE
10. Auto .40 FTE
11. Wood/Construction 1.0 FTE
B. lion-Teaching Services:
1. Literacy Coach
( 4 release periods)
2. Athletic Director
(4 release periods)
3. Activities Director
(2 release periods)
4. Advancement Via Individual Determination .20 FTE
(AVID)
(1 release period)
5. Agriculture Projects 1.0 FTE
(5 release periods)
6. Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment
Coordinator @TSA) .20 FTE
(1 release period)
7. Pre-Engineering .20 FTE
(1 release period)
Total 14.40 FTE
3. That as a result of the foregoing elimination or reduction of particular kinds of
certificated services, it is necessary to terminate at the end of the 2009-10 school year the
employment of a corresponding number of probationary andlor pennanent certificated
employees of the District.
.80 FTE
.80 FTE
.40 FTE
-2-
AT.
5.
6.
That the Superintendent is directed to initiate and pursue procedures necessary not
to re-empioy the equivalent of 14.40 full time equivalent certificated employees of the
District for the 2A10-2011 school year,

I have absolutely no clue what all that means.

Mike tell me how I can edit it and I will put it into layman's terms. Sorry

1.0 FTE = ????
(1 release period) = 1 period canceled?

Yes please Pat, again in English.

Hey btw anybody seen ... what's his name again? You remember the guy with the lame ass website, www.mykidgotyelledatsoIwantsomebodyfired.com. He hasn't posted anything since October. I guess after he befitted me with the Galt's Best Award he felt his life was fulfilled and his destiny was complete. You think?

Again my apology for the educationeese:

FTE = Full time Employee. Basically every department except for Ag lost a full time teacher Drama has been wiped out, English took a triple hit, Languages a double hit, Auto shop is nearly wiped out, wood shop is out, business and social studies as well.

In the Non-Teaching Services areas: Second tier cuts: #5. Ag teachers lost one of their "release periods" this was a compensation to them for checking on students animals after school or during the summer. Known as their "summer stipends" this costs the district nearly $180K each year in additional compensation...that dollar figure will NOT go down and the use of this slight of hand bookkeeping trick is just number shuffling. By the way, 99% of the animals students raise are sold before school gets out...very little "inspecting" is done during the summer.

This is trading the safety and well-being of our students for the well-being of an animal that is going to be slaughtered and eaten within a few months. Students leave our school with life-long injuries because of neglect by the district. Little, or no proper care and information by a person trained in the treatment of such injuries is afforded to the parent or child. The child continues to suffer and hurt for many years after.

As for the other cuts: They will not be replacing or hiring a new librarian, athletics takes two hits (big ones), as does engineering, teacher training, literacy and school activities as well, no books for the library, no stop light at Twin Cities Rd but somehow we can afford to build a Taj Mahal for the Ag Department ($6.2M for one building and $500K for equipment)

Some of these cuts are warranted, as the number of students has declined, however what is being done is more students are being crammed into each core classroom (and will be worse next year) as there will be fewer teachers and the services students deserve and need are getting cut. Test score continue to decline and students continue not to graduate (12%), and it is going to get worse.

Thanks Pat for the explination.
My personal opinion is this board has GOT to go. Period. They have failed our kids, and are failing our schools.
Fire the school board, merge the two (HS and ELEM) and be done with it.

At the meeting last night, Audrey Fitzpatrick, CBO admitted that the district is facing a $600,000 for this year and a 2 million shortfall for next year. How they can be running a deficit budget this fiscal year is something I do not understand. I thought by law that they had to have a balanced budget, yet have done nothing to correct this. The total cuts needed are a total of 2.6 million.

When queried, Fitzpatrick admitted that the teacher layoffs would generate savings of about $600,000 and that another $600,000 has already been cut. That leaves about 1.4 million still to be cut. Where will that come from?? No answers from the Board, yet we are fast approaching deadlines for decisions to be made.

In addition to recalling the Board, Fitpatrick should also be fired. She advocated the borrowing of the money for the Ag building and, as CBO, is responsible to see that the budget stays in line. She has failed.

I wonder if the next step is a takover by the State?

Having a “little” experience with school districts ( I was the FEMA Field Team Leader for the 17 Teams that inspected 11,000 LAUSD facilities for the Northridge Earthquake), I can tell you 2 things: One, that 80 PERCENT of a school districts budget goes to salaries and Two, school districts “defer” maintenance to pay for books, equipment, utilities, loans, etc.

Point being they usually DO NOT have any place else to cut but salaries, which means teachers. Another real common mistake is to compare CAPITAL monies to OVERHEAD operating monies; there is a whale of a difference!!! Capital money is one-time money while overhead operating monies you need year-in year-out to operate.

You can compare it to saving up for 15-years to replace the roof on your house vs. having to pay your utility bills every single month. I guess one could take the money saved for the roof, spend it on utilities, but when it is gone . . . it is gone and those utility bill keeps on coming . . . . Oh, and your roof will still need replacing.

Hard choices all.

Good analogy Tom: This is exactly why the bleachers and roofs at GHS are in such sad shape. Much of this is Superintendent generated...trying to please the Ag Board members and to hell with everyone else...the Supt is just trying to keep his job...oh yeah!!! They got rid of that evidence...now Ricky Khader is "retiring"...kind of like Bernie Olmos...Audrey (Meadows) Kilpatrick will be their next victim. Fire the evidence. Sink the ship.

I have a question...

Is it legal for the district to cut extra caricular funds for all but one?
It seems, Ag is the only department that isn't being cut.
Are there any legal grounds that we can use to force an across the board cut...That's an Equal cut...??

Who would have thought the LA TIMES would even allow it on their pages??

Quote of the Century:

"Frankly, I don't know what it is about California , but we seem to have a strange urge to elect really obnoxious women to high office. I'm not bragging, you understand, but no other state, including Maine , even comes close. When it comes to sending left-wing dingbats to Washington , we're number one. There's no getting around the fact that the last time anyone saw the likes of Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, and Nancy Pelosi, they were stirring a cauldron when the curtain went up on 'Macbeth'. The three of them are like jackasses who happen to possess the gift of blab. You don't know if you should condemn them for their stupidity or simply marvel at their ability to form words."

--columnist Burt Prelutsky , LA Times

I would like to give credit where credit is due: Change the names to Diane Kittamura, Terry Parker Owning, and Norm Pearson or Art Oelsner or Gus Prouty and you will get the same results and comments.

How low do we want to go folks?? GHS was four years ago ranked in the top 100! The last highlighted number is how far GHS fell LAST YEAR!

546 Cesar E. Chavez High Delano Joint Union High Delano 09 12 2015 19.9 305.8 338.5 644.3 141

546 Soquel High Santa Cruz City High Soquel 09 12 1085 18.3 307.5 336.8 644.3 238

548 Ann Sobrato High Morgan Hill Unified Morgan Hill 06 12 1373 19.2 289.1 355.0 644.1 103

548 Galt High Galt Joint Union High Galt 09 12 2174 18.9 304.2 339.9 644.1 117

550 Learning Post High (Alternative) William S. Hart Union High Valencia 07 12 76 19.0 298.2 345.7 643.9 329

The numbers were provided by the National Center for Education Statistics, US Dept of Ed and the CA State Dept of Ed. I hope the bacon tastes good.

We were given just over 24 hours to decide to either approve or not approve a "Resolution" that lumped together all of the recommended pink slips. Dr. Lee clearly stated in the Special Board meeting that this was needed to cut another $600K from the budget. Any further cuts require concessions by and through the union. Close to 30 students spoke against cutting Drama, the ONLY PROGRAM to be completely obliterated where a long-term employee has built his program up to a strong one. As a Board member, I was led to believe that I had no choice but to approve this, for financial reasons. I was misled that this was based on "trend" data. In other words we were told that as enrollment has declined, the number of students who want Drama has also declined....suggesting that there are no longer enough students to fill the Drama classes, especially since Mr. Nunes now has to go back and forth between two campuses and then try to bring his students together for any productions done for the public. Basically, Drama has suffered from being forced by the Aggie Board onto two campuses because the Drama 1 & 2 classes have been splintered.

However, last Friday, I learned that Ag was already "advertising" on GTV (GHS campus TV) that they are offering a "newly certified for VAPA credit" class called Florticulture next year. That's a fancy name for flower-arranging and landscape design (I assume). So, now it appears to me that Drama had to "go" because Ag needed to fill up its "newly certified" class......And let's not forget that C R, the Ag Chair, is Board President, D K's "best friend" by their own public admission. Last year I tried to set up a meeting with C to find some common ground that never happened! Apparently, Ag is not interested in common ground....only total and complete domination. Please, folks, I grew up in a farm state. This "all-or-nothing attitude" has NOTHING to do with agriculture! It is a perversion of traditional agricultural values.....where community is important and kids come first because they are our future. This false sense of entitlement, and its black v. white mentality that pervades here in Galt is unhealthy on SO many levels!! And what happened to being Christian?! I thought that was important to farmers....

Likewise with ROP Auto Shop, the Ag Dept. is now promoting an auto shop class in place of the one we voted to cut. These two new classes are how Ag hopes to "recall" their 1 pink slip before the May 15 deadline. And they want to swoop the Ag students back who were involved in the Drama program these past few years. They are callous to what is being done by this Aggie Board majority to the Nunes family who both got pink slips yesterday, as Mrs. Nunes' father is dying. Mr. Nunes who moved here 7 years ago in order to invest in this community. He puts in more than 500 hours per year outside normal school hours without additional compensation. He does not see any "budget" to speak of.....he brought Shakespeare and other classics to Galt. He recently brought 16 NorCal schools together here at GHS, exhibiting regional leadership. This is how we treat our neighbors? This is how we reward our teachers for great service?

I discussed this with friends who have children enrolled in the Ag program at GHS or LRHS now. Every one of them agreed that Drama should NOT be cut! Galt has had Drama in its curriculum since 1911! If this community allows this Board to cut Drama completely out, it will be an abomination!!! Obviously, it is not really about lacking the money; it is about who has control and who does not: domination & power, not what is best for the community or the kids. The Ag summer stipend was just increased from $80K to $100K for 6 teachers. Eliminating that, or just putting the Ag staff to the same level of summer stipend all other teachers get would save Drama. Will this Aggie Board do the right thing? Stay tuned......I am committed to doing my part to bring equity into this situation.

Kathleen:
You are also most likely unaware that the AG dept is trying to force through a new class in small engine repair. It came before GHS Site Council last month and was rejected on two grounds. We did not feel it appropriate to be adding new classes in one department while another department was being cut. In addition, the class had a requirement that any student taking the class HAD to be a member of FFA and 10% of their grade would be based on the participation in "FFA events". There was no nexus between this requirment and what the class was teaching....just another way to boost FFA numbers.

It will come before Site Council again this coming month, and I hear pressure will be appilied by both the AG dept and the principal at LRHS. I plan to do my best to stop this class, but I am afraid we will nbe forced to "approve" it.

Pat Maple wrote on Mar 16, 2010 2:50 PM:

" Gus: Ag bldg: $230K py. Ag stipends: $210K py (total cost). Ag vehicles $90K (three yrs). Ag misc. $10K Ag salaries $445K per year. Ag benefits $95K per year. Ag operations $25K. Ag elec bill for welding ?? Additional insurance ?? And of course district costs. $1.2 million. Take 10% from them not 100% from everyone else. "

This is in response to Gus Prouty and the numbers I say drive the District decisions. Please refute them.