Front Page  »  

Paso schools face budget woes, teacher strike

February 5, 2012

By DANIEL BLACKBURN

An unexplained $1.59 million deficit in Paso Robles School District’s (PRSD) current budget has the district teetering on the brink of insolvency and under threat of a state takeover while local officials target teachers’ pay as a possible solution.

In response, teachers are now threatening to strike, and plan a rally Tuesday at the board’s 6 p.m. meeting at district headquarters, 800 Niblick Road, Paso Robles.

District officials have blamed the shortfall in its $54 million spending plan on a bookkeeping error made by a retired employee, and have posed fixes for the problem which include an immediate three percent salary hit, and similar, subsequent annual cuts.

Several sources told CalCoastNews that the “missing” money appeared to have been taken from a fund for employee insurance, provided by Self Insured Schools of California (SISC), and then used for other general purposes, but never repaid. SISC is a joint powers agreement administered by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office, and participated in by districts from throughout the state.

County School Superintendent Julian Crocker, whose office exercises oversight of individual districts in the county, said he “appointed a fiscal advisor to work with the district” in December and has offered additional staff assistance to the district.

Crocker said “the law prescribes county superintendents lots of ways to act” in these kinds of crisis situations, and acknowledged he has “serious concerns” regarding PRSD’s recent “negative declaration” of its fiscal standing — meaning that officials are uncertain about their ability to pay ongoing bills for the rest of the budget year.

Ironically, Crocker now oversees problems in the district he once headed.

Teachers union president Jim Lynett told the PRSC board of trustees in an “open letter” in January  that a cut in wages for teachers was not acceptable to his membership.

“We are prepared to sit down and negotiate a solution for next year utilizing the many cost savings ideas presented to the board by the community,” he said. Lynett said that when his members offered their compromise recently, “We were dismissed like children.”

Robert Skinner, a history teacher and officer in the teachers’ association, said that a compromise with the district “would require cooperation, and (of that) I’m not too hopeful. After all, the school board is relying on the judgment of the same administrators who got them into this mess in the first place.” Skinner said teachers may be left with only two options: accept the cut in pay, or strike.

Lynett also suggested that the district’s current budget fix may cause school classes to end as early as April.

The county education office “tried to warn the district about this game-changing screw up,” said Lynett, but those warnings went unheeded.

Dr. Kathy McNamara, superintendent of the Paso Robles district, did not returns calls Friday from a reporter.  But in an email to the teachers’ union, McNamara wrote, “The SLOCOE (county’s) fiscal adviser would not approve (the union) proposal as it did not address the mandates set forth by the county superintendent to restore our fund balance, and eliminate deficit spending.”

If the Paso Robles district was to be placed under state receivership, the current superintendent would be fired, the board would become advisory only, and state loans would be made to cover deficits. Such receivership would last a minimum of three years.


Loading...
Subjects:             
Related:


177 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Join the crowd, we all are having budget problems.


Article reminds me. My sister is a grammar school teacher that is not having problems making her budjet. because along with her hubby’s check they are making over $200,000 per year. She told me she makes about $80,000 per year. Check covers all the vacations they take along with new cars, nice house and etc. Then she complains she has to buy paper for the kids at school. Why is that. The schools have been getting lottery money and part of my taxes for years.


Administrators need to get a raise again I guess.


0

budget


0

@spirit filled. I do not know a teacher in this county that has a take home pay of 80 grand. The closest was King City.(NO LONGER) I know many dual employees of districts and none of them will bring home 200k. We as teachers have cruised along this last decade with same median income. While other professions had their incomes sky rocket. Members of our community were building castles in the hills of Santa Ysabel Ranch. Jet setting to New York, San Francisco and LA for shopping, dinner and concerts. All of a sudden I was seeing Hummers, Lamborghinis and Ferraris in our community. This was unheard of in the 90’s. We as teachers were driving mini vans. The majority of teachers I know have the same home for more than 15 years. I am not complaining, but teachers never asked our community to take a pay cut to match wages. Today we are in crisis and the first place we look is teacher wages. Teachers have rode out the storm and now we are feeling the same crisis as everyone else. Our School district needs to make some serious fiscal changes. Combine middle schools and send 6 graders back to elementary, Merge departments. Put coordinators back into the classroom. Really take a look at management and see how many make 100k or more in Paso. My guess 15 or more. Teacher incomes are always the same. Teachers have a step and column but max is 25 years. We do not need any management making 100k in this day and age. Let work together and find what is best for our students. Stop Spending like drunken sailors


0

“Teachers have rode out the storm and now we are feeling the same crisis as everyone else.” You do not say what grade or subject you teach, but I can only hope it is not English. Your sentence is not grammatically correct. It should read “Teachers have ridden”……not rode. This is exactly why teachers do not have the respect that they think they deserve. Unfortunately it is all too often true that those who can’t succeed in the free market teach under tenure. Actually, it doesn’t matter what grade or subject you teach. Someone who cannot write a grammatically correct sentence has no business teaching my child anything.


0

Wow, one mistake and look at you. I was never taught that ‘……’ is part of a sentence. You can’t debate the facts of her/his post so you attack something so silly,,pathetic. How can you be so mean to someone with the name of ‘canweallbefriends’ (guess that answers her/his question).


@canweall, your post was informative, don’t mind the people that can’t add anything of worth and only hit below the belt. So it’s cheaper to have sixth graders in grade school? Why is that, just curious? I wonder why schools put the 6th graders in jr. highs in the first place if it’s more expensive. But I agree there are things that can be done to cut costs. One of my ideas to generate money has been to rent the class rooms out in the summers for meetings, company workshops etc.. I know that a lot of people will not agree with this but I also feel they should put selected advertising on schools. Many schools are in great locations for ads. For example Shell Beach and Judkins in Pismo could have billboard that can easily be seen from he FWY, companies would pay good money for billboards in those places. Another idea is that at the children’s soccer fields they have signs from sponsors. These things would require strict rules but it could be done and it could generate some good money. I see nothing wrong with big ‘Spencers’ signs in school parking lots at the elementery and middle schools.


If you are a teacher I commend you, it’s a noble profession. I loved all of my kids teachers,,,well there was one that I didn’t care for but over all they were good and worked very hard. They have so much patients, I could only handle it a few hours a day and then I was ready to go home, it was exhausting (and that was just volunteering).


0

typo, teachers HAVE to have ‘patience’ to deal with all those little ‘patients.’ LOL


I’m just teasin’ ya. I liked your post and you and canweallbefriends brought up some excellent points.


0

Oops, I always do that, ‘patience’. My typos used to bother and even embarrass me, now I just try to find the humor in them.


I should add that a lot of that ‘patience’ is needed for the parents as well, sometimes they’re worse than the kids. Yep, teachers deserve every penny they get.


0

Oh dear, Lilylu…you sound like a bitter homeschooling parent or an angry soccer mom.


I probbly isnt smart enuf to reeplie too ur post but i hoap yoo is not thatt criticall with ur oan kidz. Yikes. Loosen up, Lilylu. :0


0

Lilylu


Personally I like “Teachers have rode out the storm” it sounds more casual and more importantly, spontaneous.


My niece use to take horse back riding at Miller’s in SLO, she uses the word “rode” a lot, she recently graduated from SLO High with a scholarship to Harvard University.


My daughter also takes horse back riding at Miller’s and she uses the word “rode” a lot. She has been on the honor roll for the past two years.


Although “ridden” might be grammatically correct, I have never in my life ever heard either one of them use the word “ridden”


0

Unfortunately, isn’t there supposed to be a comma after your use of unfortunately? Just sayin’. And wow, bitter. Just editorial posts, no need to get riled up about at typo.


0

Oh, and Lily, can you expand on your comment about those who cannot succeed in the free market? Does that imply that teachers have failed and school systems are in the business of hiring individuals that cannot succeed in the free market? Just trying to clarify what you mean.


0

tisk tisc such spelling…………all those 6 years of college didn’t help at all. shoulf have stuck it out as a garboligist


0

Spirit did not say $80,000 take home pay. Spirit said annual salary. And when you throw in the benefits, that figure goes way up. And I personally *DO* know multiple teachers that make that kind of money in this county, from Kindergarten to High school.


0

Maybe that’s where his sister lives but I can tell you that most teachers in our district make much less than that. Wages change district by district as each district has different needs and they get different funding. For example one of the districts in SLO receives a good chunk of $$ from PG&E whereas our district doesn’t so their teachers get paid much better than ours. Our school district has teachers living below the poverty level. Santa Maria teachers and Bakersfield teachers also make more than teachers in the LMUSD.


0

sloweb, you must be referring to teachers in another district, possibly SLCoastal? This article refers to the current budget shortfall in the PRJUSD and I can assure you, that IF there are any older teachers left that have maxed out on the step & column pay chart, (salary based on years in district plus education level) there are only a handful making that much $$.

Besides, if a teacher’s been in a district for 25+ years and has a MS or MA, I don’t think $80K is excessive anyway.


0

What I wrote was meant more as humor than anything else. I personally know that teachers work their proverbial butts off. I am upset over all the money that is spent on everyone but the teachers and kids. Why do teachers have to spend their own money on paper and etc? Doesn’t make since to me.

My sis told me she was making about $80,000.00 per year as a Special ed teacher in the Bay Area. 2 of my nieces are teachers also. One high school science and the other is a Special ed teacher. They make a lot of money also. Just seems $80,000 per year is a little excessive pay for 9 months a year. I could be wrong. But that’s what my sis and one niece told me. They could always give it back. That would not work. The money would probably go to something that isn’t worth while. I say God Bless the teachers. I have 2 or three that I will never forget.


0

Where did the money go?


0

Paragraph 3 explains that.


0

Does it?


“a bookkeeping error made by a retired employee”?


A $1.59 million deficit is a pretty big “bookkeeping error”!


How long did it go undetected? How many people must suffer because of it? Who detected it? How did they find it?


“the district [is] teetering on the brink of insolvency and under threat of a state takeover while local officials target teachers’ pay as a possible solution” because of a “bookkeeping error”

by a retired employee?????


Something smells here.


0

Perhaps the “bookkeeping error” somehow padded the pay/benefits of said employees, and the district is simply putting in a mechanism to get their money back.


I really do not know. I agree, however, that it would be wrong if the “bookkeeping error” wound up with 300 surplus chalkboards, and the district expected the teachers to pay for that type of error.


0

Sorry Gimlet. I should’ve said look at top of paragraph 4: … “missing” money appeared to have been taken from a fund for employee insurance, provided by Self Insured Schools of California (SISC), and then used for other general purposes, BUT NEVER REPAID.”


Gary Hoskins apparently took money from a specific fund & transferred into the general fund. oops! The money got spent for “general purposes” then the district was left w/a $1.59 million deficit because they STILL had to pay the SISC costs.


Gary conveniently retired soon after and is now sitting pretty w/a nice pension. So who’s left to blame? Not the teachers this time! How about Crocker, McNamara and the other superintendents. THEY made the budget. THEY mis-spent the money. THEY need to be held accountable…but won’t be.


0

Homerun out of the park, pasoparent5…

This is what is happening in many departments and agencies county as well as state wide, and you are spot on here,

“How about Crocker, McNamara and the other superintendents. THEY made the budget. THEY mis-spent the money. THEY need to be held accountable…but won’t be.”

Administration and management are out of control and have no accountablity…


0

Ok, thanks. I guess the bottom line here is that this “bookkeeping error” has some SERIOUS consequences. Yikes! The administrators should be held accountable for this. SOMEBODY has to be held accountable!


0

The State needs to take control and cleanup Paso Robles School District Superintendent office!


0

Are you kidding? The state can’t even keep track of its own business, let alone anybody else’s! They are borrowing money right and left to pay their bills!


0

There’s something dirty in Superintendent McNamara’s office. The State needs to come into Paso Robles School District and clean house!!


0

“An unexplained $1.59 million deficit in Paso Robles School District’s (PRSD) current budget has the district teetering on the brink of insolvency and under threat of a state takeover while local officials target teachers’ pay as a possible solution.”


“Unexplained” ???? Love the $1.54 million dollar “error”. For those of you actually struggling for an explanation, here it is; they’re thieves. When they can’t find an excuse for additional “legal plunder”, they just steal it. How’s that “Hope and Change” working out for you all?


0

IMHO, to me it appears there is a similarity in the root of the problems in all of the stories concerning the whoas facing Paso right now.

ADMIN…

None of this would be happening if the management and administration were actually doing the job they are being overpaid to do.


0

I cut my pay in this economy along with some of my benefits. I don’t see how the teachers can complain as they have never taken a cut in this economy. I say if they strike, fire them all and the bs union and hire private teachers. All unions are anymore are a bunch of blood sucking liberal punks.


0

Just my take on the situation, but it appears the teachers are striking because they don’t want the “unexplained” $1.59million being born on their backs alone.


They are not part of the unexplained huge loss. Investigate, identify the ones who are, and make them pay for it.


We are continuing to see the “make the innocents pay” scenario play out in the City of Bell. The citizens and the unindicted workers are the ones who are suffering from the previously (until the state stepped in) “unexplained losses” in that city.


At least in Bell’s case, when Rizzo et al. are convicted of felonies, they won’t be able to collect their pensions–if Gov. B’s pension deal goes through. Perhaps some of that pension will be returned to the City of Bell to help get the city back on track.


0

I have had to take multiple cuts in pay over the last few years. This economy is tough, but jobs are even tougher to come by. Sure, the pay cut hurt a bit but not having a job would have been devastating. Everyone needs to pitch in to help out, yes, even the teachers.


Unions are not there to look out for the best interest of everyone, they are there to protect their members. Unions have 2 goals: increase the number of members and to get their members better pay and benefits.


0

I don’t know about all districts but in most including the one that I live in, the teachers have sacrificed. They haven’t received pay hikes in quite awhile, there’s been a lot of layoffs, there’s more kids in the classrooms and the teachers are having to purchase many of their own supplies now. Our district is one of the lowest paid districts regarding teacher pay in state and yet these teachers live in one of the most expensive places in the state. Bakersfield teachers get paid more than LMUSD teachers. The teachers are pitching in. If we keep taking from them then we will end up with even a worse school system than we already have. By having good teachers we will have well educated teachers. Why would someone go to collage all those years if they’re going to be paid the same as someone flipping burgers at Micky Ds or someone without a degree?


The unions do more than what you just said but I know that I could never sway the mind of someone that’s anti union so why bother.


0

Well said, Typo. I do, however, think that the national teachers union NEA is wasteful and not helpful in local situations. I’d rather see a local teachers’ organization/union where local members pay dues that don’t end up in Washington DC into the hands of greedy union bosses & lobbyists. But in a case of gross mismanagement–like what has occurred in PRJUSD–teachers must stick together. It is simply not their fault in this case.


0

I feel that we need the NEA. Unfortunately lobbying has become a way of life. Until this lobbying scam is wiped from our politics the teachers need to be an a fair playing field. Teacher IMO need that national help as well as local help.


It’s such a shame that PR schools are going through this. This is going to have major ramifications on the quality of education up there IMO. I hope that Crocker can fix this mess. There is no excuse for one employee to be able to make a 54 mill mistake, there should be more oversight. God knows that the one of the biggest wasteful expenditures for school districts are people like this, they’re usually way top heavy with admin.. Take away the pay from the administrators that should have been responsible for this mistake, that should be overseeing the district finances, this simply can’t be all due to one person. Like you said, it’s not the teachers fault.


0

Does more pay make a better teacher? Indirectly they are part of the problem due to the benefit packages that they have along with the excessive pay that the administrators/teachers receive. Everyone needs to get involved with this economic conditions. They should all go without a check and visit the real world and talk to those that have lost there jobs and are struggling just to stay afloat. If it’s really too bad for them they can always get a second job, like many people are doing, while they are all on their extended summer vacations.


0

I always try and keep an open mind… so if you can present a good argument on how the teachers union benefits students, then I could change my mind.


0

Teachers unions fight to keep class sizes down to a manageable size. Like any union they fight to for teachers rights such as safe working conditions. If the teachers aren’t in a safe environment then they might not perform at their best. Over all they fight for the teachers rights, a happy teacher is a good teacher. If a teacher is worried about how she’s going to feed her kids then that mood might roll over to the classroom. If a teacher is forced to work a 60 hour work week then that would hurt students. Yes their are laws to prevent that but those laws are there due to unions and if there’s isn’t any oversight then we could go back to those conditions, especially now during this new wave of people that want to go backwards instead of advancing. But lets say that unions don’t help the students (which the do) the teachers deserve representation anyway.


0

Agreed


0

I wonder who that “retired employee” is. I have a dear friend who retired from PRSD last year and she worked in bookkeeping. She was rehired this year, still getting her retirement, as a part-time employee. She works when she wants to for PRSD and vacations the rest of the time. Would be interesting if she were the one being blamed. I will have to do some investigation of my own. ;)


0

One of the involved parties is GH


0

Dr. Gary Hoskins is currently running for SESLOC’s board of directors. HE was the Asst Superintendent for Paso schools and has since conveniently retired. Lucky him.


His quote: “I am recently retired as Assistant Superintendent/Chief Business Official for Paso Robles School District, where I developed and supervised yearly budgets…” [taken from http://www.sesloc.org/candidates%5D


So again, I ask how teachers can be blamed for a $1.59 million deficit when it was Asst Superintendent Hoskins & Superintendent McNamara (and ultimately Crocker) at the helm of the ship…


0

California has the highest average teacher salary of any state in the country but also has among the highest numbers of students per teacher.

California ranks 31st in per pupil spending.

California ranks almost last in student achievement.

I found all this on the Legislative Analyst’s Office site, they are for 2011. 50% of our children are from low income families, 25% are ELL (English language learner), and 10% are in Special Ed programs.

Because we did the redistricting, it’s possible that with the next election the Democrats will get their “super-majority”, this means goodbye Prop13, hello 15%-20% income tax, new special assessments on businesses, new fees on everything, etc., etc., etc. I’m sure all our problems with be gone soon.


http://www.lao.ca.gov/reports/2011/calfacts/calfacts_010511.aspx


0

When find the money. Pay the students parents a bunch of money and tell them they will get the same amount next year if the kids raise their grade point average from D to B. Bet the student achievement goes way up. The elite should listen to me, I have such great ideas. God Bless.


0
1 2 3