“It takes six to eight tries just to get into Infinite Campus"

Teachers lobby district for raise

CHIEFTAIN PHOTO/BRYAN KELSEN
Pueblo City Schools Chief Financial Officer Rebecca Kluck gestures as she talks about cuts to the district's budget during a school board meeting at Centennial High School Tuesday night.

Posted: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 12:00 am
By JOHN NORTON | norton@chieftain.com | 4 comments
Officials and members of the Pueblo City Schools’ teachers union asked the Board of Education on Tuesday night to follow through with the rest of this school year’s raise and not to make cuts next year that affect the classroom.
 Their argument, that there is plenty of money available if it wasn’t tied up in reserves, is one that teachers have made almost every year. It’s been countered by a budget oversight committee that repeatedly scolds the board for allowing its budgeted reserves to drop by giving raises. This year was no exception.
 Chief Financial Officer Rebecca Kluck said that currently the district is looking at a 7 percent cut in state funding, resulting in a $4.4 million reduction from this year’s spending.
 That would prevent school closures or the need for furloughs that came out of worse scenarios but still mean layoffs of probationary teachers.
 Before the Pueblo Education Association members used the public comment session, the board gave the floor to John Vigil, financial planner who serves on the oversight committee.
 Pointing to Pueblo’s current 9.5 percent unemployment rate and the hardships that many private-sector workers have endured, Vigil said that school districts have an even greater challenge than a business. “They have little control over income they receive,” he said, adding that unlike a business, “they have limited ability to determine price, cost or capacity.”
 Because of that, Vigil said, “school districts must manage their budgets from the expense side.”
 He read off a list of dire steps taken around the country of school closures, hundreds of jobs lost and closer to home, in Pueblo County School District 70, four-day weeks and furloughs.
 In 2009, he said, US Bank cut employees’ pay by 5 percent and other companies cut wages twice that. FedEx, Motorola, Honda and other employers have cut pay. “No one has been unaffected and there are no sacred cows,” he said.
 During the public comment session, teacher Leeann Carabelos, told the district that it had the money to follow through with teacher raises.
 Last fall after all other employee groups had gotten 2.2 percent raises, the teachers union, by far the largest employee group, agreed to a 1 percent raise with a 1.2 percent increase retroactive to the beginning of the school year, in January — if a threatened rescission of state money did not occur.
 The General Assembly had warned that with state revenue spiraling downward that there was a good chance it might take back part of school funding. That happened and the district has not given the teachers the additional money.
 Carabelos said that regardless of the state’s action, the district has more than $1 million in its budget for salaries that has been moved back into the general fund. “We have the money,” she said.
 Pam Cordova spoke next offering the PEA union’s proposal for budget cuts that included taking money out of the reserves.
 Barb Clementi, a long-time PEA officer, said that there has been a trend of “over-budgeting” over the last seven years of $1 to $12 million.
 Gina Otero, another teacher, said the district was not supporting teachers now. In spite of providing five computers to every classroom, she said, “We don’t have the technology or the technical support we need. We can’t even get into the computers.
 “It takes six to eight tries just to get into Infinite Campus,” she said, referring to the district’s new comprehensive software.
 “We have seen that there is money in the budget but it’s not making its way to the classrooms. Teachers can no longer afford to foot the bill for supplies when there’s money in the budget.”
 Carole Partin, president of the union, said that the teachers’ point was that the district’s budget was healthy. Deanna Strait, another teacher, was more pointed, saying, “If we’re not going to get our 1.2 (percent) increase then administrators should not get their raises either.”
 The board also heard comments about charter schools. Alvin Rivera, who has been involved in long-running litigation with former Cesar Chavez Academy founder Lawrence Hernandez, who ousted him from the academy board several years ago, said the district board should revoke the charters of the academy and Dolores Huerta Preparatory High.
 On a more positive note, Jodene Muniz, director of grades three through five at the academy thanked the district for its help in administering Colorado Student Assessment Program tests. CCA and DHPH Board President Donielle Gonzales said she had submitted the names of five “highly qualified” board candidates for the district board’s approval.

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