Superintendent Letter October 2011

We are pleased to report that the 2011-2012 school year is off to a great start. All across AUSD, we are putting the community’s Measure A dollars to work protecting our key academic programs, including small class sizes of no more than 25 students in K-3 classrooms, successful instructional initiatives for elementary and secondary students and critical counseling and student support services. Measure A dollars are also maintaining important enrichment programs such as music and art for elementary and secondary students as well as high school athletics.

One of the highlights of the year so far was the 57th annual Island Bowl football game last month between Alameda High and Encinal High. Approximately 4,000 excited students, staff and alumni from across Alameda were in attendance for the latest chapter of this traditional community gathering. By allowing us to keep our high school athletic programs strong in a wide variety of sports, Measure A ensures our traditions will endure and makes it possible for us to continue to provide outstanding athletic opportunities for hundreds of our students every year.

I would like to share a few key points with you about where we are fiscally as a District.

The Measure A funds that our community supported are preserving educational quality in AUSD. Consistent with the community’s core values and the will of the Alameda voters who passed Measure A by a margin of more than two to one, our budget protects and funds the 11 specific educational priorities identified in Measure A. Inside the classroom, Measure A has allowed us to restore a full school year, with 180 days of instruction for all students rather than the 175 we had last year. In addition, Measure A has allowed us to invest in deepening our important work to support teachers and improve academic instruction for students. For example, Measure A is helping us continue our K-12 math initiative, which strengthens teachers’ math content knowledge, improves lesson design, uses ongoing assessment data to promptly address learning gaps and provides teacher coaching by peer math coaches. Measure A is also allowing us to increase the number of teachers trained and participating in our other important ongoing instructional initiatives (Strategic Instruction Model – “SIM” and Inquiry by Design – “IBD”) at the secondary level.

We have budgeted conservatively and strictly in accordance with what the community approved in Measure A. AUSD has adopted a fiscally conservative budget for the next three school years that incorporates and relies on the critical local revenues provided by Measure A. As we look at our three year (multi-year) budget, it is clear that we do not have resources in hand for priorities other than those identified in and paid for by Measure A. The bottom line is that we are doing and will do what the community asked us to do with Measure A, but we do not now have the funds to do more than that.

Measure A was designed to protect our core. It is important to recall that the structure and amount of Measure A was a compromise that followed the failure of a larger parcel tax measure (Measure E) in June 2010. Through Measure A we sought to generate sufficient revenue to protect the community’s core values and maintain our most important school programs. But, in order to limit the burden taxpayers would be asked to bear in difficult economic times, Measure A asked for millions less than Measure E had asked for. As a result, Measure A required AUSD to make significant additional budget cuts on top of many others already made in recent years. It was not designed to completely fill the budget gap created by the collapse we have seen in California’s funding of education since 2007-2008. Accordingly, except for the priorities budgeted for through Measure A, any significant new ongoing spending must be deferred until a time when the state’s financial situation improves substantially and the State’s funding of education increases.

Given the great economic uncertainty in Sacramento, we have budgeted prudently in AUSD to provide a buffer locally. It was apparent last spring when the Board of Education adopted the AUSD budget for 2011/12 that California’s fiscal crisis and political gridlock of recent years continue. Our 2011/12 budget accounts for the uncertainty, volatility and unreliability of the State’s education funding by making sure AUSD acts conservatively to include contingency plans and reserves to safeguard against further cuts, deferrals and changes at the state level. Our fiscal conservatism in this year’s budget has proven to be the correct approach: Indications are increasing that the State will impose “trigger cuts” in the middle of this school year (cuts built into this year's state budget that will take place automatically if revenue falls short of projections from last spring) that will result in the loss of millions of dollars of revenue for AUSD. Since we have budgeted conservatively, we expect to be able to apply our contingency plans and reserves to offset those “trigger cuts” likely coming to us from Sacramento. Unfortunately, if the cuts later this year are of the magnitude many are projecting, our contingency and reserve funds will then be depleted as we head into the next school year in 2012/13, with the result that the outlook is worrisome for our longer term, three year (multi-year) budget.

We are committed to public accountability and transparency with all expenditures of our locally funded Measure A dollars. As part of that commitment, on September 27 the Board of Education approved the appointments of eleven talented, experienced community members to serve on the Measure A Oversight Committee for 2011/12. The Oversight Committee will meet several times over the course of the year to review AUSD’s compliance with the terms of Measure A.

Throughout the year we will continue to keep you updated on the budget situation in Sacramento, its effect on AUSD’s budget and how we are putting your Measure A dollars to work protecting our community’s core values here in Alameda.

Thank you. As always, feel free to email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call me at 337.7060.

Sincerely,

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Kirsten Vital
Superintendent of Schools