Kitty Ruhstaller, North Central California & Sierra Foothills Realtor

The temperate California Central Valley where your dollars will buy you a bigger home!

Make sure to follow my website: KRuhstaller.pmz.com

The takeaway from tonight's outrageous meeting courtesy of our fierce student advocate, Lange Luntao - there is absolutely no reason that nearly 104 certificate...d (teacher, counselor, school support staff) positions should be terminated in Stockton USD in the middle of a pandemic. Stockton USD, like many districts around the state, has been forecasting difficult financial circumstances for several years. This is the result of a few factors: operating costs increased (particularly pension and benefits costs - healthcare is expensive in this country!), COLA decreased from the state, and the district chose to make key investments in expanding high quality services for young people - i.e. adopting and training staff in a standards-aligned, teacher-chosen Math and ELA curriculum ($19M), and hiring 30 mental health clinicians ($4.3M), 40 counselors ($9.3M), 22 music teachers ($2.6M). This was the right thing to do to support our students and staff. But we knew that we would need to seek more resources to make these investments sustainable long-term. This is why I and most of our district leadership were so supportive of Schools & Communities First - increased investment from the state would've created a much better financial situation for our system. Prop 15 did not pass. There are now 54 districts across our state that are in a 'negative' or 'qualified' financial situation, including Sac USD, Elk Grove USD, and West Contra Costa USD. This means that these districts may not be able to pay their bills in the next 2-3 years. Here is the most recent list: https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/fi/ir/first2021.asp In Stockton USD, we have been preparing for this situation for a long time. Last March, the Board gave direction to the Superintendent to begin reducing budget costs with a focus on keeping cuts as far away from the classroom as possible. I'm attaching some of the cuts that the staff & superintendent were authorized to make. Unfortunately, the slight majority of my peers on the Board (now the majority) then changed their mind, and instead forced the Supe to resign, wasting ~400k in the process, and (to the best of my knowledge) have not done much else in the time since to develop a strategy for fiscal sustainability. Stockton USD still has a 'positive qualification,' meaning that our budget is sound for the next 2-3 years. Attendance and enrollment are relatively steady. But tonight the majority of the board are considering cutting 103.5 critical certificated positions, without clear strategy or vision. I hope they will reconsider this proposal and root their decisions in what is best for our most marginalized young people & our essential staff members. Budget documentation from March 2020: http://go.boarddocs.com/ca/susd/Board.nsf/goto See more

Did you know? Getting tested can help us show that our community is slowing the spread of COVID-19. Find a COVID-19 testing site in your area at www.sjready.org.

It's worth the effort so come on "buy"