Sacramento County officials met today with state representatives to start bankruptcy proceedings for the Natomas Unified School District.
The Natomas district failed to meet a Nov. 30 deadline to show both a balanced budget and positive cash flow three years out as required by state education code. The Sacramento County Office of Education has overseen the district’s finances for over a year and confirms another $8.9 million is needed for the district to be considered solvent.
County superintendent of schools Dave Gordon told THE NATOMAS BUZZ he met today with Joel Montero, chief executive officer for the state’s Fiscal Crisis & Management Team. The state agency is charged with helping education agencies comply with fiscal accountability standards and the purpose of today’s meeting was to start the loan process to cover district expenses and the cost of state oversight in the foreseeable future.
“We will have a community meeting in the next several weeks in Natomas to explain how the process works and what a state loan means,” said Gordon, who hopes the schedule the session prior to the Christmas holiday.
Meanwhile, talks between Natomas school district officials and the teachers’ union continued today and are scheduled to resume again on Monday. The district is asking all employees to make concessions amounting to a 7.9 percent pay cut to avoid a state takeover.
“If along the way, the district and bargaining units would come to some agreement,” Gordon said. “The process could be interrupted.”
Gordon pointed to concessions made recently by teachers in the Elk Grove Unified School District in the form of furlough days and higher medical co-pays. Sacramento City Unified School District teachers, he said, also made concessions.
“This is not breaking new ground,” said Gordon. “It would be better all around for people to settle at the local level and control their destiny.”
“It would be better all around for people to settle at the local level and control their destiny.”
That is the truth! Just heard from a friend last night who works for the State Department – a 10% cut is coming her way. It is happening to EVERY tax dependent organization up and down our state. It isn’t about mismanaged funds, it is about a lack of funds. This is a recession and it hits everyone. Is there other ways the District can save money? I hope so, because the financial future of California isn’t looking too good and we will need more and more ideas to decrease spending and increase revenues. But for right now, we need to balance our budget and move forward.
Please, lets get past this so we can work together as District Administrators, Teachers, Support Staff and Parents to solve our own financial problems. If we can be united around providing the best education possible for our kids, rather than pointing fingers, there can be a solution.
My wife and I have been involved with and committed to Natomas schools and this community for YEARS. But I’ll be honest. We are currently taking steps to move both of our kids to schools out of district. NUSD schools are simply NOT providing the educational opportunities that our kids deserve. As committed as we are to the community, our first obligation as parents is to take care of our kids’ needs — and those needs aren’t being met in NUSD schools. Looking toward a future in state receivership, there is no way that would improve.
I guarantee that these conversations are taking place in households throughout Natomas. Many of us are very sympathetic to teachers — we know that teachers didn’t create this mess. Indeed while some question certain past decisions by the district, the truth is that most of this crisis was not created by our school board either – nor our new Superintendent. Most of it is due to the economy and gross fiscal mismanagement (i.e. lack of priorities) by the Governor and Legislature.
But that is all beside the point. We are where we are. And the math says NUSD can’t pay its bills without major concessions. If the NTA leadership doesn’t wake up soon and do what is necessary to keep this district out of state control, they literally won’t have a district left to teach in — certainly not one where anyone would want to teach.
A good comment from the Sac Bee article:
By the way, the district’s projected number (regarding the deficit and what invariably needs to be cut) is a number that they came up with, based on their own book keeping. The district’s numbers are NOT the actual numbers. It is a PROJECTION. NUSD district office does this every year–ie, create a mass deficit number (the sky is going to fall!!) and then uses said number to barter/negotiate. Then, miraculously, when a contract is negotiated, a new number comes out (showing the district in somewhat better shape). It’s all a bait and switch. Teachers should wait it out and let a third party come in and take a look.
“Most of it is due to the economy and gross fiscal mismanagement (i.e. lack of priorities) by the Governor and Legislature.”
Sorry, this is NOT TRUE. If this was true then every school distrct in California would be heading for a state takeover.
Maybe you are unaware that for the last several years NUSD has been on the fiscal watch list. For years the district ignored letters from SCOE regarding their finances.
The superintendent, school board, and media have implied that the teachers are not cooperating and that they do not care about the children or community. This is not true at all. My children have had some wonderful teachers who for years have been trying their best in a district with lousy administrators at all levels with no classroom money for supplies. It’s absolutely appalling that the district has dug themselves into such a deep hole.
“The truth is that most of this crisis was not created by our school board either – nor our new Superintendent. Most of it is due to the economy and gross fiscal mismanagement (i.e. lack of priorities) by the Governor and Legislature.”
Sorry, this is NOT true. If this was true then all school districts in California would be heading for a state takeover. Maybe you are unaware that for the last several years NUSD has been on the fiscal watch list. For several years NUSD ignored letters from SCOE regarding their finances. For years many teachers voiced their concerns about the districts spending on unnecessary costly programs that ultimately failed.
The superintendent, school board, and media have implied that the teachers are not cooperating and that they don’t care about their students or community. This is simply not true. My children have had some wonderful teachers who for years have been trying their best with lousy administrators at all levels who have already taken paycuts and with no money for classroom supplies. It’s appalling that NUSD has dug themselves into such a deep hole.