May 16, Governor Jerry Brown released the May Revise of his 2011-2012 budget proposal. This release has been greatly anticipated by agencies (public schools included) charged with providing services to California’s residents because it provides a more definitive understanding of how the State plans to fund services in the coming year.
While the budget continues to rely on the assumption of tax extensions, it does contain some positive news for CUSD and other districts throughout California. Most importantly, it is becoming increasingly likely that funding to K-12 schools will remain almost flat in 2011-12. Yes, we have reached an era where “almost flat” funding is good news simply because it means we are not plunging further off a financial cliff.
In Clovis Unified, we will be opening a dialogue with our employee and community groups via the Budget Standards Committee and the Employee Compensation Committee to discuss both the on-going impact of our previously implemented budget reductions (which include furlough days and salary reductions) and how best to allocate the limited resources that will be available to us in the 2011-2012 budget.
Because the recovery of both the national and state economies is still very fragile, it is premature to assume the worst of the budget crisis is behind us. However, we do believe that schools will avoid the catastrophic additional budget reductions predicted by some for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, which is a great relief!
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