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The union-backed three-trustee majority controlling the West Contra Costa faculty board is driving the district towards insolvency.
Voters in Space 5 who're fed up with this reckless habits ought to reelect Leslie Reckler, one among two members of the board minority that has tried to go off a monetary catastrophe.
In Space 4, the place voters have a alternative between a candidate who has helped create this fiscal mess and one who doesn’t appear to know something about it, we make no suggestion.
Reelecting Reckler in Space 4 received’t be sufficient to swing the stability of energy on the board, however it could hold the state of affairs from getting even worse — and ship a message that voters count on faculty board trustees to behave on behalf of scholars and the neighborhood quite than doing the bidding of labor unions.
Regardless of a surge in class funding from the state, the district faces a structural deficit totaling $46.5 million within the present and subsequent two fiscal years, in response to warnings issued by the Contra Costa County Workplace of Training, which evaluations native districts’ funds.
“The West Contra Costa Unified Faculty District is not fiscally wholesome and is unable to fulfill its monetary obligations,” wrote Denise Porterfield, deputy superintendent on the county workplace, in a Sept. 23 letter echoing a comparable warning despatched in March.
Due to the board majority’s continued deficit spending and unwillingness to make crucial cuts, particularly staffing reductions wanted to regulate for the district’s quickly declining pupil enrollment, the district may run out of money within the subsequent fiscal 12 months.
The state of affairs is so dangerous that the county workplace has assigned an out of doors fiscal advisor to the West County district who has authority to dam district spending choices. And if trustees don’t reverse course, the district — which stretches from El Cerrito and Richmond within the south to Hercules within the north — may very well be positioned in state receivership, and the board would lose management to an official appointed by the county superintendent of colleges.
Repeating historical past
If this all sounds acquainted, that’s as a result of the district met an identical destiny in 1991 and required a state bailout that took 21 years to repay. However the present board majority appears dismissive of the district’s ignominious historical past, monetary hazard and potential lack of political management.
It’s not shocking. The board majority is comprised of Jamela Smith-Folds, who was a district trainer; Otheree Christian, who was a faculty district safety guard; and Demetrio Gonzalez-Hoy, former president of the union representing the district’s academics who at present works for the politically highly effective California Academics Affiliation.
In different phrases, the labor unions management the board. These are trustees who belong on the opposite aspect of the bargaining desk. They’re extra involved with defending jobs than guaranteeing the district stays solvent to serve college students.
Gonzalez-Hoy, who represents Space 4, together with El Sobrante and the Hilltop space of Richmond, can also be up for reelection within the Nov. 8 election. Sadly, his solely opponent is district mother or father Olivia Liou, who isn't a reputable candidate and lacks fundamental understanding of the problems the district faces. We make no suggestion in that race.
Space 5 – Leslie Reckler
In Space 5 — which incorporates Kensington, El Cerrito and East Richmond Heights — Reckler, the incumbent, fully understands the gravity of the district’s state of affairs however has been within the minority together with Trustee Mister Phillips in attempting to stability the books. They've been outvoted by the union cabal.
Satirically, when she ran two years in the past, Reckler, a PTA activist, was backed by the labor unions. Whereas she nonetheless has help from the commerce unions, her refusal to disregard the monetary cliff forward and her vote for the wanted staffing cuts explains the school-worker unions’ endorsement of her opponent, Patricio Dujan, this 12 months.
Dujan is a regional vp for gross sales of an organization that gives books and academic supplies for colleges. He says he would have voted in March in opposition to the staffing cuts. If Dujan wins, the labor unions would management 4 of the 5 seats.
Ignoring professional recommendation
That key board vote in March prompted the elevated county intervention. The board had been informed it wanted to ship layoff notices as a part of the chopping of about 200 crammed and vacant positions — about half of them full-time academics. The layoffs would have shaved $12.5 million from the projected deficit.
“The district’s funds are constructed, frankly, on a home of playing cards,” warned Michael Advantageous, CEO of the state’s Fiscal Disaster and Administration Help Workforce, which had been introduced in earlier to help the district.
Beneath state legislation, to chop workers, the district wanted to ship layoff notices by March 15. If it later discovered it wanted extra instructors, it may have employed again a number of the pink-slipped academics. However the board’s 3-2 vote to not ship out the notices meant it was caught with the bigger workforce, and its unsustainable prices, for one more 12 months.
Inside per week, the county introduced extra intense district oversight. “The governing board is demonstrating a sample of not fulfilling its fiduciary accountability,” wrote Porterfield, the deputy superintendent within the Contra Costa County Workplace of Training.
The county concluded that the district is not fiscally wholesome and is unable to fulfill its monetary obligations. These findings have been reaffirmed in an identical letter in September. The one factor proper now stopping the varsity board majority from driving the district over the fiscal edge is the county-imposed outdoors fiscal overseer who can block district spending choices.
It could be so significantly better if accountable trustees have been main the district. For this election, voters mustn't lose one of many two they at present have. Reelect Leslie Reckler in Space 5.