Saturday, June 28, 2008
VUSD works to ease tensions over site money
Saying they want to put an end to recent squabbles between parents and administrators, Vista Unified School District officials are creating new rules regarding the groups of parents and teachers that oversee spending at each of the district's campuses.
The move comes after a year of battles between some of the groups, known as school site councils, and district officials over how money is spent. Administrators have pushed to use large chunks of the money on reading and math programs, while some of the site council members have fought to add teaching staff.
"If we didn't need a policy, we wouldn't have had the troubles we had this year," board Vice President Steve Lilly said when administrators presented the proposed policy to the school board earlier this month.
All schools in California have these site councils. They're required by the state education code. Their chief purpose is to figure out how to spend money set aside for classroom materials and teachers' salaries, among other things.
Up until recently, the school site councils in Vista put together budgets for their schools, and the district's board routinely approved them without much discussion.
However, starting this year, district officials began overruling some of the site councils' decisions, using the site money to pay for the Lindamood-Bell Reading Processes and SuccessMaker reading and math programs that the board and administrators have worked to expand over the last couple of years.
Critics have charged that these programs are too costly and say the district shouldn't be taking the site council money to pay for them.
The policy
The amount of money each school gets varies, depending on its performance and need. Across the district, it adds up to millions of dollars.
Vista Unified administrators proposed a new site council policy at the school board's June 19 meeting, saying it was an attempt to clarify the roles of the councils, district administrators and trustees in the process of spending the money.
"We're talking about some significant money here," board President Jim Gibson said. "I want to make sure that every dollar we have is being spent wisely."
The proposed policy, which the board has said it expects to modify, basically states that all school site council votes are only recommendations, and that district officials will always have the final say.
At the June 19 meeting, the trustees agreed to collect comments from parents and teachers on the site councils before approving the policy.
"I don't want this to become a serious bone of contention," Trustee David Hubbard said. "It doesn't need to be."
Some members of local site councils at the meeting said they opposed the proposal. They added that they don't think it's right for the district to consider the issue during the summer months, when parents may not be paying attention to school issues.
Jan O'Reilly, president of the district's teachers union, said she is worried that the school board and district administrators are trying to take all of the decision-making power away from the site councils.
"I see it as nothing more than their attempt to exert their authority," she said.
Gibson said he thought it was important that school site councils' budgets are aligned with board goals, which include expanding the Lindamood-Bell and SuccessMaker programs.
"The board is always responsible for everything that happens or fails to happen at the school district," he said. "Any time you set direction, you're going to have people who disagree with you and push back."
The disagreements
Problems have flared up over the past several months at a handful of schools throughout the district, as district officials have pushed to use site money to expand the two educational programs to all district schools. Both programs are administered through companies that contract with the district.
"They're forcing (the programs) on the site, and some sites are pushing back," O'Reilly said.
The disagreements went the furthest at Casita Center for Technology, Science and Math. Members of the site council filed a complaint with the California Department of Education after district officials threatened to freeze site money if the council didn't approve a budget that met their demands.
The council is now waiting for the state to respond to the complaint, which could take up to two months.
Last week, the council and district administrators struck a compromise. It would give the council more than $35,000 to spend as it sees fit, and set aside the rest of the school's nearly $180,000 in site money to pay for Lindamood-Bell workers and someone to oversee a new program for students learning to speak English, said Lisa Hoffman, a member of the site council.
There were similar issues at other schools, including Bobier, Alamosa Park and Breeze Hill elementary schools, O'Reilly said.
At Bobier, district officials took $115,000 in grant money that the site council had already set aside and attempted to use it to pay for a Lindamood-Bell summer program at the school, said Ruth O'Neil, a retired teacher who is site money coordinator at the school. After the council fought back, the district agreed to pay for the program another way, O'Neil said.
O'Reilly said the situation with the site councils and a lack of communication from the district office is responsible for a growing distrust of district administrators among some parents and teachers.
"There are some fumin' humans," O'Reilly said. "It's leaving a bitter taste in a lot of people's mouths."
Contact staff writer Stacy Brandt at (760) 901-4009 or sbrandt@nctimes.com