Mt. Diablo School Board Approves Difficult Budget Cuts

The Mount Diablo School Board met Tuesday night in Concord to make some tough decisions about budget cuts and layoffs. By late evening, the board approved reductions to special education, adult education, summer school sessions, hours worked by office and maintenance workers as well as shortening the school year to cut costs.

The board went through the budget reduction plan -- item by item -- voting on what to cut and what to keep.

More than 400 people including teachers, staff and parents packed into the cafeteria of Monte Gardens Elementary School to witness the process.

The school board looked for ways to cut $48 million over the next four years.

"Everything we cut at this point is something that the board would never cut if we were making rational decisions," said Mount Diablo Unified School District Board President Paul Strange. "But we're forced by the state to do irrational things to the system."

As a result of the decisions, some 200 teachers, librarians, counselors and others can expect layoff notices Monday.

Kindergarten teacher Liz Tang said she is among the employees who will be getting a pink slip. In addition, she is looking out for her own two young children currently attending schools in the district.

She said fewer teachers means larger classrooms and a gap between achievement and success widening for all students.

"They're all my babies," said Tang. "Their successes are my successes. Their failures are my failures. I'm really concerned that the more we cut from them the less successful they'll become."

During a volleyball game at Concord High School Tuesday night, some parents said they're frustrated by the cuts the school district makes each year.

One father said he's already paying hundreds of dollars for his 14-year-old son to play on the junior varsity volleyball team.

Greg Jensen said budget proposals such as cutting five days out of the school year or giving teachers less preparation time can only hurt students.

"I'm concerned about the quality of education," Jensen said. "I think teachers are being turned into administrators and scorekeepers. I don't think they're getting time to teach."

The district said in order to save 19 clerical and maintenance jobs, some workers may see a cut from eight hours to six hours a day, working ten days fewer a year.

One school secretary said she's willing to take the pay cut to save jobs.

"Somebody out there would probably love to be in our shoes. There's a lot of people out there that don't have a job and probably wish they can have their hours reduced instead of having no job at all," said school attendance secretary Annette Bailey-Mitchell.