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District: Budget
Bargaining Update
See an update on bargaining with the Teachers Association of Long Beach here.
783 Layoff Notices Go Out Next Week
The Board of Education this week OK’d layoff notices for 783 certificated positions, up 28 positions over last month’s total. The notices will arrive at schools by Monday, March 8 to be distributed to employees in person by March 15. The notices are necessary because of the state’s ongoing, deep cuts to public education.
Most of the positions added to the layoff list are teachers on special assignment. These teachers were added because an analysis of their seniority showed that their jobs may be at risk.
Manager Furloughs To Mitigate Layoffs
Most managers and other non-represented employees here will take three unpaid furlough days next school year, saving $1.2 million. The school board OK’d the furloughs as part of a third round of budget cuts this week.
Office supervisors will take two furlough days because they have unique schedules and could otherwise lose retirement service credits. About 60 managers, including psychologists, will not be affected by the furloughs because their work schedules have already been reduced this school year.
The furloughs come after an Association of Long Beach Educational Managers and Confidential Employees survey showed that more than 74 percent of managers here supported furloughs to mitigate layoffs, while less than 11 percent favored job cuts as a means of saving money. See the full survey results at www.albem.org.
Along with the furloughs, the school board OK’d the elimination of high school summer sports clinics. The school board also decided to modify sports schedules at Wilson and Millikan high schools due to their block schedules, so that some sports classes would meet every other day like other classes. The school district was considering moving high school sports outside the school day to save money but ultimately decided against that change.
The full list of cuts made at the March 2 meeting is available here. 
Bargaining Update
See an update on bargaining with the Teachers Association of Long Beach here.
Updated "Frequently Asked Questions" on Certificated Layoffs
See the newest document from Human Resource Services here.
Board OKs Layoff Notices for 755 Positions
The Board of Education this week approved layoff notices for 755 positions, including K-12 teachers, counselors, social workers, assistant or vice principals, and adult school educators. The notices are part of the Long Beach Unified School District’s ongoing effort to balance its budget in light of unprecedented state cuts to education funding.
"This is probably the worst day of my professional career," Superintendent of Schools Christopher J. Steinhauser said at Tuesday’s school board meeting. "This is truly the fault of Sacramento and their abandoning of public schools in this state."
Ever since Steinhauser became superintendent in 2002, LBUSD has cut its budget each year, with the exception of one year.
"The time has come to tell Sacramento that this has to stop," Steinhauser said.
The school district is strongly pushing state and federal policy makers to provide complete flexibility to LBUSD so that it may use its increasingly limited funds as it sees fit, rather than follow archaic mandates established by lawmakers hundreds of miles away, the superintendent said.
The school district had hoped for an early retirement incentive to lessen the impact of layoffs but announced that insufficient numbers of teachers signed up for the plan.
State law requires certificated layoff notices to be received by March 15, and final notices to be received by May 15. The number of final notices will depend on factors such as retirements, resignations, the state budget and concessions in bargaining.
The list of layoff notices is in the Feb. 16 school board agenda available here. The school district on Feb. 10 distributed information for employees affected by layoffs. This information remains available here on the Budget Update page immediately below this entry under the February 10, 2010 heading.
The Board of Education approved further budget reductions yesterday, including the elimination of Class Size Reduction in first and second grades next year. The board, which had already OK’d similar cuts for kindergarten and third grade, has now approved about $40 million in reductions at its last two meetings due to California’s ongoing multi-billion-dollar cuts to public schools.
Combined with other recent reductions, the latest cuts could affect more than 430 elementary teaching positions alone in addition to hundreds of secondary teaching positions, management jobs and support staff.
LBUSD staff is now working to implement the school board’s reductions, and the number of certificated positions targeted for layoff notices is expected to be published here on Friday, Feb. 12 as part of the agenda for the Feb. 16 Board of Education meeting. A list of frequently asked questions and answers regarding teacher layoffs is available here. A separate list of questions and answers regarding the effect of layoffs on employee health benefits is available here.
Under state law, school districts by March 15 must notify teachers whether their jobs are at risk of elimination. Teachers receive confirmation in May whether they may return to school in the fall.
The school board’s recent cuts also include more than $10 million in reductions to central office and special education resources, as well as reductions in itinerant music teachers, librarians, nurses, counselors, recreation aides, assistant principals, social workers, psychologists and teachers on special assignment. The music teachers, librarians and nurses will be reduced by attrition only (resignations and retirements).
The school district plans to cut another $50 million for the 2011-12 fiscal year. The unprecedented local cuts are required in part because Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s latest budget proposal calls for $2 billion more in cuts to K-12 education, prompting at least another $20 million in reductions here. The school district already has cut more than $100 million over the past five years.
"Support for Our Schools Is Needed, Appreciated"
By Christopher J. Steinhauser
Superintendent of Schools
Our school board accomplished the difficult task of cutting more than $32 million from our budget on Jan. 27. This latest round of cuts could affect 280 teaching positions and 170 management positions in a system that already has cut more than $100 million during the past five years, all due to the state’s ongoing budget crisis.
For years, I’ve used this website to tell you about our successes, and to reassure you that we’ve done our best to keep budget reductions away from the classroom. While our school district remains among America’s finest, and we fully intend to maintain the excellence of our programs, clearly we’ve reached the point where we can no longer protect classrooms as much as we’d like to. Average class sizes in kindergarten and third grade will grow to 30 students next year, up 10 over this year. A variety of other deep cuts will affect students at all levels.
We’re not alone in our budget troubles. Most every school district in California faces the same ordeal. The time has come to apply pressure on our lawmakers in Sacramento, and the message is simple. This must stop. California’s continued, unprecedented cuts to public schools are shortchanging the future of our state and its ability to compete as one of the world’s major economic powers.
You might want to contact your elected officials at the state level and let them know that the latest proposal to slash $2 billion more from K-12 education should be a non-starter. Our schools have shouldered more than their share of California’s budget cuts, and it’s time to reverse the descent of our state’s education funding into the ranks of America’s worst.
In contrast to our problems with Sacramento, local support for our students and schools remains strong. Thousands of volunteers, business partners and other community supporters continue to provide vital financial and moral support to the Long Beach Unified School District.
A prime example of such support is the work of Long Beach Rotary, which was honored by our school board recently for providing more than $2.6 million in scholarships and books to local students since 1998.
Long Beach Rotary’s Charitable Foundation has donated more than 150,000 books to students and school libraries through the Reading by 9 program. Each year since 1999, Rotary has passed the hat for contributions to the cause at its meetings, collecting about $275,000 in donations and matching funds for the literacy effort.
This year for the first time, Rotary’s Reading by 9 project expanded beyond elementary schools to benefit Child Development Centers. Rotary is putting a new book in the hands of every CDC preschooler this year, and is donating hundreds more books to the school libraries at CDCs and elementary schools.
Rotarians also devote countless hours reading to elementary school students, assisting high school students with community service projects, and providing many other means of support to public schools. Community partners such as these help to make our schools among America’s best despite the tough challenges we face.
To our friends at Rotary and our many other supporters, we say thank you, and keep up the good work.
The Board of Education approved an estimated $32.6 million in budget cuts at this week’s meeting. Due to California’s ongoing budget crisis and the steep reductions in education funding from Sacramento, the Long Beach Unified School District faces major budget deficits requiring about $80 million in cuts for fiscal years 2010-11 and 2011-12 combined.
While the school board took a significant step toward balancing LBUSD’s budget this week, Sacramento’s massive funding cuts mean that the school district faces continued budget cutting at least for the rest of this year and through next year.
The district already has cut more than $100 million over the past five years due to unprecedented reductions in state funding for K-12 education. The state now pays LBUSD only 82 cents for each dollar owed to the school district. Additional cuts currently being discussed in Sacramento would reduce that amount even further.
In response to the massive reductions in revenues from Sacramento, school district administrators have worked for months with employee groups, parents and others to find ways of increasing efficiency and to determine which areas of the budget can be reduced with the least impact upon students. Together, we have also sought ways of boosting revenue and assuring maximum flexibility from the state regarding how LBUSD spends its limited resources, so that decisions on expenditures can be made at the local level. These efforts have been enhanced by suggestions from online budget surveys, a Budget Advisory Committee, and numerous other avenues of input.
Unfortunately, this week’s cuts could affect more than 280 teaching positions and 170 management positions, as well as some support staff positions. The school district does not yet know exactly which positions will be affected but is developing recommendations to be acted upon by the school board in the coming weeks.
School district staff continue to monitor the state’s ever-changing budget, and the district will continually revise its own budget as more information from Sacramento becomes available. A full list of the expenditure reductions approved by the school board this week is available here.
Questions and Answers
Q: Did the school board approve increases in class size for next school year?
A: Yes, though not beyond contractual limits. The school board OK’d a revised staffing ratio of 32 students per teacher for grades 6 to 12. That’s an increase of one student for those grade levels. The staffing ratio is the number used for budgeting purposes. The board also OK’d a revised staffing ratio of 30 students per teacher for kindergarten and third grade, an increase of 10 students.
Q: What is the timing of layoff notices for employees?
A: The law requires school districts to notify certificated staff by March 15 regarding potential layoffs for the following school year. Final notices must be received by these employees by May 15. Classified employees must receive at least 45 days of notice prior to a layoff. The school board will make decisions about layoffs in the coming weeks.
Q: The school board’s action included about $6.5 million in cuts to itinerant music teachers, library media assistants, librarians, nurses, counselors, recreation aides and leaders, assistant principals, social workers, psychologists, teachers on special assignment and other support staff. How many and which of those positions will be cut?
A: Those reductions (items 12 to 24b in the document accessible here ), represent the overall amount the board has directed staff to cut from those budgets. Accordingly, staff is examining every program and line item of each of those budgets to identify and eliminate expenditures which are not absolutely essential. Staff will provide the board several options to meet the $6.5 million target in the coming weeks.
Q: The school board approved $10 million in central offices/central services cuts, including Special Education. What are the details of those cuts?
A: As with some of the other items approved, the $10 million figure represents an overall amount that the board has directed staff to cut from these areas. Staff will provide more detailed recommendations to the school board for consideration, and these details will be published in the coming weeks.
Q: The cuts included the discontinuation of the Science Itinerant Program. How will this affect schools?
A: After the school district suspended its Camp Hi-Hill Outdoor Education Program in the Angeles National Forest last year, the Science Itinerant Program instead provided elementary level supplemental science lessons conducted by teachers who visited various schools in the district. Beginning in the 2010-11 school year, the elementary schools will no longer be provided with this service, saving the school district the equivalent of five full-time teaching positions.
Q: The cuts included displaced physical education teachers. How will this impact schools?
A: These teachers, already displaced from other programs that ended, had been providing supplemental P.E. support and coaching at the elementary level. Beginning in the 2010-11 school year, this reduction will save the school district the equivalent of nine full-time positions.
Q: Has the school district tried to keep cuts away from the classroom?
A: Yes. For example, in 2008-09, the most recent year for which official data are available, LBUSD had 345 students for every one administrator. The more students per administrator, the leaner the ratio is, meaning more efficient operations. LBUSD's ratio is significantly leaner than the county average (206 students per administrator) and the state average (224 students per administrator). That is because, while LBUSD has reduced the number of administrators by 18 percent between 2004 and 2009, the county and the state increased by 6 percent and 7 percent. During this time period LBUSD saw no change in the student-teacher ratio districtwide.
Q: What happens next?
A: Staff will continue to analyze the state’s evolving budget picture and bring further recommendations to the school board, which is required by law to pass a balanced budget by July 1. Some of these additional recommendations will be presented to the board at its next meeting, scheduled for 5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 9 at in the Community Room of the Administration Building, 1515 Hughes Way, Long Beach.
Budget Expenditure Information - Board Approved Reductions
Budget Expenditure Information - Staff Recommendations for Reductions
January 27, 2010 - Staff Recommendations for Reductions - Powerpoint 
July 7, 2009 Board of Education Meeting - Powerpoint
June 23, 2009 Board of Education Meeting - Powerpoint
June 23, 2009 Board of Education Meeting Presentation - 
June 22, 2009 Letter to Employees
