With 10 days until election day, it is time to sum up the campaign. My campaign has been based on tremendous gains that have been made over the past few years and articulating a vision of keeping balanced services so that all children are offered a well-rounded education.
Much of the focus of the past couple years has been on the budget cuts and tough decisions that have been forced upon us. Like every other public school district in the state, Berryessa Union School District has been a victim of the recession. As a result, we have been forced to cut 20% of our budget. That required creative solutions in order to maintain the balanced services I mentioned. While our class sizes have increased, we were able to keep K-3 classes at 24:1, while many districts around us are now have 30 children in each classroom at those grade levels.
Increased class size means a reduced teaching force. Our district has 35 fewer certificated teachers than it did last year. In order to prevent further erosion of the teaching staff, we made small but painful cuts in other areas. We reduced library hours by 20%, middle school counseling by 25%, custodial service by over 40%, maintenance staff by a similarly large amount, and clerk and secretary hours by about 10%. Our district office administration has made cuts every year, and we operate as lean as any of our peer districts.
We were able to maintain our unique and award-winning music program, and avoid closing any of our schools. Large savings were realized by a major lighting retrofit project that converted the district to modern fluorescent lighting fixtures.
Through it all, the Berryessa Union School District has made tremendous growth during recent years. Our district's API scores are up 68 points over the past 6 years, with 11 of our 13 schools now scoring above 800 and 4 of our schools above 850. Three more schools have been awarded distinguished school designation during the past four years. Two of our schools were major winners in the Governor's physical fitness challenge. Our middle school students were big winners at the county science fair. Piedmont Middle's music program won major statewide awards. The list goes on.
Despite the cuts, the district has been able to add a district librarian, a social worker, and two new school psychologists. We have just completed a complete upgrade of our district's technology, with increased bandwidth and modern systems. We are utilizing computers in classrooms and this year have received a grant to install smart board technology in 4th and 5th grade classes at 2 schools. And we are about to begin installation of solar panels across the district in the most profitable solar deal by any district in our County.
The district is moving forward and needs continuity of leadership to continue to make progress in these areas. I am bullish on the future of the Berryessa School District and look forward to being part of its ongoing success.
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I forgot to mention one of the things I am most proud of during my tenure. That is the passage of Measure W, which raised $1.7 million annually for our district. Without my prompting in 2008, Measure W would never have been on the ballot and I was the only board member to serve on the campaign committee. We succeeded in getting 72% of Berryessa voters to support us.
ReplyDeleteWithout Measure W, our district would have suffered devastating cuts. I need to continue serving on the board in order to make sure that we renew Measure W in 2012 are preserve those key local funds for future students.