Where does the $250K amount to fund spring sports come from? Students pay to play and provide their own transportation. The SRHS swim team, for example, buys their own suits and has parkas generously donated by the SRHS foundation. Coaches are paid a small stipend and facilities must be maintained, but $250K. . . Really????

Times are tough, that’s no secret.

(Please note, these are my opinions only and I do not speak for the board. Parts of this are also from an email response I sent to an angry parent.)

First and foremost, the school board must cut $5.6 million from the
budget, and next year we are likely looking at another cut of close to $5
million. While *no one* denies the importance of items such as music, art
and sports, today’s high stakes (and high cost) testing requires that first and foremost, the “basics” be covered. Since I voted to cut librarians (and the adult ed program/teachers) as a cost-saving measure, I knew I could not cut staff and classes without also looking at “extracurricular” activities.

While everyone decries the cuts being made, very few offer viable
alternatives. The most common advice we get is to “cut the bloated
administrative costs,” as we see in some of the responses above. In reality, administration is not as huge as people seem to think, and letting them all go is not the answer to filling a $5+ million dollar hole. Who then would deal with the business aspect of the district? Most teachers, let alone the public, know what really happens at the district office. (Until recently, *I* didn’t know what they really did, and I have been a teacher for close to 20 years.)

Also, the county (not Santa Rosa) has 40 districts. If anyone is interested in trying to consolidate any of them, please contact the state or SoCo Superindendent, Dr. Carl Wong, for information. This movement cannot come from individual boards; it must come from the electorate. (You wouldn’t believe how often we get reamed about this, as if we’re personally holding it up.)

In response to the student’s allegations about extra money left over in the budget, this has been discussed many times between the district and the union. I told that SRHS teacher that the district has answered these questions, in my mind, in a satisfactory way. I urged the union leadership to contact CTA (CA Teacher’s Association) to go over the budget and get their professional opinion. I haven’t heard anything back yet about this.

In relation to sports, an aspect that many have seemed to miss, and as was stated in the Press Democrat, is that the district hopes food sales and energy conservation can *fill in* for the general fund money being cut from sports. This idea *has been* in place and was mentioned at the meeting as a hoped-for solution to keeping spring sports in tact. It was *not* an after-thought. If students buy the healthy lunches offered by the schools, and urge everyone to conserve energy in their schools, they will be supporting sports.

“Board members urged district officials to monitor a energy conservation
plan and food service program that staff has suggested could generate
enough funding to support the athletic programs, as well as some arts
funding. The board intends to revisit the cuts to spring sports in April
or May to see if they can be reversed.

[Associate Superintendent] Bower said the program has already shown signs of success.

‘These are very achievable goals,’ he said.”

More and more I, as both a teacher and a trustee, am coming to the conclusion that public education is in such dire straights that we will be left with a mere skeleton of what it used to be here in California. The closing of schools, the cutting of sports, classes, jobs, etc., indicate the problem is huge, and did not originate with any local school board. We cannot afford to take anything for granted and must demand of Sacramento that legislators and current/future governors “care” and adequately fund public education. I firmly believe our very democracy relies on this.

Laura Gonzalez
SR Board Member

In today’s article, the board pres says sports in 2011 won’t be cut after all – most likely. He sighted new solutions – WHY didn’t they have these solutions 3 days ago before VOTING TO CUT THE SPORTS PROGRAM? They are incompetent and not advocates for our youth as they have been voted in to be. They should have the privilege of making policy removed and a new board should take over that includes a mixture of leaders that know the importance of sports – the health benefits, the scholarship benefits, the incentive to have good grades, the ability to work with others to achieve a goal, the experience of comradeship, conducting oneself with good sportsmanship qualities, etc etc etc.