CUSD budget solutions reveal strength of teamwork

Drastic times call for drastic measures.

Accurate or not, this well-known proverb has been repeatedly tested by school districts and school boards over the past year-and-a-half, as many districts have been forced into making radical changes to the services they provide students in order to balance desperately reduced operating budgets.  While Clovis Unified’s conservative financial history and careful planning has allowed us to be spared the dramatic changes other schools around the state are making, we haven’t been spared the necessity of considering some fairly drastic changes of our own in order to compensate for the tens of millions of dollars taken out of our budget by the state during the last 18 months.

At its last meeting in April, our Governing Board took action on what, to Clovis Unified, was a drastic measure to preserve the programs and services we provide our students.  In order to help close our existing budget gap for the 2010-2011 school year, the Board approved a recommendation from our administration and employee groups to implement an across the board salary schedule reduction of two percent this coming year, and another two percent the following year. In addition, the recommendation added three furlough days per year for all employees, starting in 2010-2011.

This is a hugely significant step for our District to make, and I believe in many ways it demonstrates the drastic lengths we are willing to go to in order to protect what’s right for our students. 

I’m relatively new to Clovis Unified, and so the process I have watched unfold around me during the past several months was unexpected and completely impressive.  I also understand from veterans in the District that it is representative of a deep-seated culture that puts doing what is right for kids first, and protecting the family of employees who serve those students immediately second.

My experiences in other school districts, and when talking with other superintendents from around the state are typically quite different.  Sadly, the individual needs of the adults can overpower the basic principle of putting students first.  That’s how school districts end up making sweeping layoff declarations, ending athletic, and arts and music programs, or canceling critical student services in the name of balancing a budget. 

This process has been much different in Clovis Unified. First, our Governing Board spent several months working with district leaders to look at every element of our budget devoted to everything but employee salaries.  Their approach to this difficult task was to always ask the question, how would students be impacted if we made this change?  Using this process, members of our Board identified approximately $15 million in reductions.  These worked around the edges of our core educational and co-curricular programs, and while they cut deeply, they didn’t gut those very educational services that our student must have to be successful.

Then, our employee groups took up the charge of finding additional budget reductions that could be made to help close our budget gap.  These groups, representing all of our teaching, support and management staffs, first reiterated a commitment to preserving the jobs of employees currently working for the district. Every one of our employees was carefully chosen because of what they have to offer our students, and therefore, we have fought to continue a practice of avoiding employee lay-offs when the budget gets tight.

Instead, these groups spent the past several months working together, listening to each other, and coming to consensus.  In the end, all of our employee groups agreed that they would rather all share in the pain of salary reductions, than see their colleagues lose jobs or students lose out on a high quality education.  Wow.

I’d like to change that old proverb to say that dramatic times call for dramatic measures… and this kind of solidarity among different employee groups is pretty dramatic!

Sitting in the meeting of our Governing Board at which these painful salary reductions were approved, I couldn’t help but be extremely proud of everyone who has been a part of making these tough recommendations.  Our employees have their priorities right; and while I know it’s going to be extremely hard to see their livelihood go backward, I also know that CUSD’s team will continue to take pride in knowing that they’ve done the right thing for students.

This essay first appeared in our May issue of CUSD Today, and I can’t help but find it ironic that May is also the month that we celebrate Employee Appreciation Month in Clovis Unified.  And, how appropriate it is that this is the month we make a particular effort to show our employees that we understand and value the contribution they make to our students.

This year, we may not be able to show this appreciation through a larger paycheck, however, it is my sincere hope that our employees continue to understand how much they are esteemed for the work that they do, and how much value we place on their contribution to Clovis Unified.  These are drastic times in which we are living, and we have had to make some drastic adjustments to survive.  But, I’ve now seen what can be accomplished when everyone works together, and I have confidence we will not only survive, but thrive.