ALAMEDA — Alameda Unified will cut kindergarten hours from a full day to a half day next year as the district looks at ways to pay for rising health care and pension costs.
The reduction in kindergarten hours is expected to save the district $432,256 annually.
Trustees approved the reduction and other budget changes April 10.
“I wish that we were here tonight to strictly make decisions that are the best ones for students,” Trustee Anne McKereghan said. “But unfortunately, we are in a situation where we don’t have the option.”
More than a dozen speakers urged trustees to hold off on cutting what district officials called “innovative programs,” including at Amelia Earhart Elementary School, where a science teacher’s job was under threat. Trustees opted to keep the position.
“We must pay our employees a living wage,” Trustee Jennifer Williams said. “And we need to make that a priority now.”
Other budget moves include changing Lincoln and Wood middle schools from a seven-period day to six periods, which will save about $779,000 this school year, and next year allowing high school classroom sizes to have up to 35 students per teacher, the maximum allowed under the district’s contract with the teachers union. That should save about $314,000. Island High School, the continuation campus, is exempted.
Teachers on special assignment, including some literacy and math coaches, will be shifted back to the classroom, a change that is expected to save about $716,000 — the biggest money-saver for the district.
From this school year to 2020-21, the district will pay about $10 million to meet rising pension and health care costs, a bill that will inevitably draw from the district’s general fund because cost of living adjustments provided by the state will not cover it, officials say. In addition, a 1 percent raise for all Alameda school employees for one year would cost about $775,000 annually.
Pay for Alameda district employees lags behind other districts in Alameda County, in part because classes are not filled to the contractual limit and its class sizes are lower, and special education costs higher than the county average, trustees were told.
Special education costs are also rising because more and more children are being identified with special needs and the state is mandating that school districts provide services for them but not providing funds for the services, according to the district.
“We have had a full and robust set of presentations about how resources and funds are now allocated in this district,” Superintendent Sean McPhetridge said during the meeting when the budget changes were approved. “As a result, we are farther along in our ability to start discussing why these decisions have been made, as well as how the board is committed to making new arrangements to take care of the district as a whole and to take care of the collective interests of people who work here and the families we serve.”
Trustees decided not to place a parcel tax on the November ballot as a way to generate cash for salaries, citing a lack of public support and the need to make structural changes in the budget first.
