Previously: Tough New Charges, Cuts Being Discussed For City Agencies’ Budgets
The San Francisco Unified School District board tonight is expected to approve its proposed budget, which represents months’ worth of wrangling to patch a $113 million deficit projected over the next two years.
The proposed budget includes roughly $40 million in concessions from educators, according to the teachers’ union, which entered into negotiations with the district in February. A contract agreement was ratified last month.
Although the agreement reduced the cuts to teachers and classroom staff, roughly 250 positions would still be eliminated, down from the 348 positions for which layoff notices were sent out in May.
Part of the agreement calls for the shortening of the school year by four days for teachers and administrators for the next two school years. Administrators and principals would have one additional furlough day for the 2010-11 school year. The move, which accounts for $5.7 million, is the largest single money-saver of all the proposed cuts.
Teachers are also forgoing paid sabbaticals and 18 hours of professional training, which will save $4.5 million.
Approval of the 444-page document would mark the start of work set to unfold over the summer, when the budget is fleshed out further.
“The budget is not just a number, it’s a dynamic process,” United Educators of San Francisco spokesman Matthew Hardy said.
Over the next few months the union plans to continue to hold the board accountable to the agreement to ensure it lives up to its word, Hardy said.
“A budget is what you hope to live by, not what you actually live by,” union president Dennis Kelly said.
The shortfall is partially the result of $17 billion in state cuts to K-12 education over the past two years.
After the budget vote tonight, the board will hold a special meeting to consider a resolution condemning Arizona’s new immigration law. If adopted, the resolution would prohibit the school district from funding any trips to the state for conferences or meetings.
