BERKELEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT TO: Donald Evans, Ed.D, Superintendent
FROM: Javetta Cleveland, Deputy Superintendent
Pasquale Scuderi, Assistant Superintendent, Educational Services
DATE: May 3, 2017
SUBJECT: Approval of Superintendent’s Recommendation on Budget Priorities for 2017-18: Base Grant (Unrestricted General Funding) BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Staff presented the Budget Priorities to the Board on April 26, 2017 for discussion. The Superintendent’s is now presenting the budget priorities for 2017-18 for approval after the Board’s input. The list of budget priorities is much smaller than last year. Several of these items, including ROP and Special Education are not new programs but existing programs with increasing cost or decreasing revenue. The District’s base grant funds have many competing programs and services and this list prioritizes funding needs due to limited resources. The District’s base grant funding is generated based on average daily attendance (ADA) and supports all of the District’s educational needs. Although the District’s ongoing base grant funding has increased substantially in prior years, in the 2017-18 year due to reduction in GAP funding, the District barely has a projected balanced budget after one-time expenditures are removed. In 2018-19, the District’s expenditures are expected to exceed revenue and create a projected $1.2 million ongoing deficit. Therefore, any increased cost will increase the deficit in 2018-19. The deficit in 2018-19 is caused by both a decline in enrollment and ongoing annual increases in employer retirement costs of $1.1 million for STRS and PERS as well as other increasing cost. There will be further increases in retirement cost in 2019-20 and the subsequent two years. The Governor’s January budget only provided for $.4 million of additional one-time mandated cost reimbursement funding for 2017-18 that cannot be used for ongoing programs and services. This one-time funding has been substantially reduced from $2 million in 2016-17 and $5 million in 2015-16. This funding reimburses the District for prior year mandated programs and services that are reimbursed by the State. These funds are unrestricted, however, the Governor recommends that these funds be used for content standards implementation, technology, professional development, induction programs for beginning teachers and deferred maintenance. The Superintendent is recommending the attached list of list of budget priorities offset by staff reductions in 2017-18 to minimize increasing the structural deficit. Staff is also proposing budget reductions in 2018-19 to address the structural deficit of $1.2 million. Staff’ proposed budget reductions for 2018-19 are including in a separate part of the agenda under discussion items. The 2018-19 budget reductions are being proposed for discussion as forward planning to address balancing the budget if the State revenue projections continue to decline and to fund ongoing budget priorities and other District needs. The Superintendent is not recommending that the proposed budget reductions for 2018-19 to be approved by the Board this school year. However, the District needs to be prepared if those cuts are actually needed after the Governor’s January budget in 2018. The budget cut target may increase or decrease based on the Governor’s May revision, the State Budget for 2017-18 ,the Governor’s January budget in 2018 and other District needs that may occur. 
ONGOING BASE GRANT FUNDING BERKELEY HIGH SCHOOL REDESIGN SUPPORT - ongoing $550,000 (multi-funded) The proposed redesign at Berkeley High School, which will be considered again in May of 2017 by the Board, will add approximately $550,000 to the school’s operating budget. The majority of the expense will be directed at creating a flexible collaborative structure to support students including an academic development advisory class for students facing significant or historical learning barriers. The particulars of this proposal are available to the public in the documents prepared and shared with the public at the February 15, 2017 special session to discuss the high school’s redesign. Staff is proposing that $300,000 be allocated from base grant funds for to support the implementation of the universal 9th grade program in 2018-2019. The additional costs of $250,000 associated with the $550,000 ongoing total will be sought from some combination of the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) supplemental funding as well as potential support from BSEP as well as potential repurposing of existing costs at BHS. The projected total costs of $550,000 per year will primarily support the proposed Universal 9th grade program’s new house structure. In each 9th grade house of 120 students, three of the four core teachers will have, in addition to their preparation period, an additional period (.2 FTE) to provide a flexible student support class for the small group of students with the highest needs in that house; the fourth core teacher will serve as that house’s leader, coordinating curriculum, student support, and planning for their house as well as serving as the liaison to the community of house leaders across the 9th grade program. Each house will therefore require .8 FTE on top of their core class allocation for a total 4.8 FTE. The remaining balance of those funds will cover variances in these teacher personnel costs, and potentially cover some of the professional learning and coordination needs in year 1 of the implementation. CUSTODIAL AT LONGFELLOW - ongoing base grant starting in $65,000 Longfellow and Washington are two (2) sites that are being maintained by hourly employees. The new cafeteria requires a .75 FTE and Washington requires a .25 FTE, combining the two (2) positions is the recommendation. The new kitchen is double the size of the old kitchen, and includes the outdoor patio and the garden area surrounding the building. Additionally, daily cleaning is required for the front grounds of the new cafeteria as students litter from one side of the campus to the other while coming from the cafeteria. The old cafeteria space is not closed down and still requires custodial services since it has been incorporated into usable learning space that is used daily. Washington portables lost custodial services to the high school. Before the M building was built, the high school occupied seven (7) portables on the Washington school site. Berkeley had a custodian come from the high school to maintain the portables when they were removed from the BHS campus to the Washington Annex. Once the portables were turned over to the Washington school site, a split level custodial employee serviced the BHS kitchen (.75 FTE) and .25 FTE maintained the Washington portables (.25 FTE). The custodian then moved onto a full custodial 1.0 FTE position at BHS leaving Washington with a substitute and reduction of .25 custodial FTE. ITINERANT (PERMANENT) CUSTODIAL SUBSTITUTE - ongoing $19,000 base grant funds The District continues to have challenges with having available substitute custodians on the eligibility list. Staff is requesting to make a substitute position a permanent employee and increase the annual daily substitute cost to include benefits for an additional cost of $19,000. This position would be an itinerant position that is managed by the Operations Manager and logged each day for the person substituted for. This is similar to the 1 FTE bus driver the Board approved last year to secure a substitute bus driver for absences. The itinerant permanent substitute will be funded from a transfer of daily substitute dollars in the amount of $46,000 and as well as an increase in base grant funding of $19,000. ADMISSION SUPPORT - ongoing $40,000 base grant funds This $40,000 will be used to increase hourly and provisional support in the admissions office. The District has recently made concentrated improvements in the processes it uses to verify residency. In June of 2015, the Board of Education directed staff to require families to provide proof of Berkeley residency before students are enrolled in Berkeley schools. Families must submit proofs of Berkeley residency when they first enroll in the Berkeley Unified School District, when transitioning from elementary school to middle school, and once again when moving from middle school to high school. In addition to the increase in administrative and communication hours that have increased under this new policy, a home visit is at times necessary to verify Berkeley residency and adds to the scope of the department’s work. BOARD APPROVED NUTRITION SERVICES RESTRUCTURE - $86,000 funding by Nutrition Services with potential of contribution from base grant needed beginning in 2018-19 The Nutrition Services Department has seven vacant Nutrition Service Assistant (NSA) positions without substitutes to backfill the vacancies on a day to day basis. On any given day the department is operating at a deficit of 32% of required staffing. Nutrition Services has moved from operating elementary schools with two persons per site to only one Satellite Operator and the NSA’s have been temporarily reassigned to the central kitchen instead of working at their respective school sites. The central kitchen staff are now pre-packaging individual servings of meals to facilitate the single person operation at elementary schools. The central kitchen staff are cooking all foods including items that were previously prepared at the school site (for example, rice) in order to lessen the burden on the Satellite Operator working alone at the site. Salad bars service remains intact. Although, Nutrition Services is unable to provide a buffet style food service as specified by BUSD Food Policy, the change to the single service model still continues to follow the same menu providing the same quality meals. However, the food delivery system is different and not at the same level. This is affecting our participation rates and therefore, our bottom line. On April 26, 2017, The Board approved the Nutrition Services restructure to increase the hours of the Nutrition Service Assistances to improve recruitment and retention of employees as well as return food delivery back to past practices. The NSAs provide the preparation and distribution of food for breakfast and lunch. The NSA positions are difficult to fill at .40 FTE (3 hours per day, $14.22 to $17.34 per hour) and are 10 month positions. Comparable positions at neighboring districts are .67 FTE and are at least 5 hours a day or more. The most recent compensation study did not award these positions an increase because they were already paid higher than the average in comparison to other districts. However, in other Districts, the positions are paid for more hours. Staff increased the number of hours for these part-time positions will make these open positions more marketable and create better retention rates. Staff signed an MOU agreement with BCCE for this reorganization. This reorganization allows for increasing the hours of 7 NSA positions from .4 FTE to .767 FTE (5.75 hours) and 2 NSA positions to 1.0 FTE. There was an elimination of four of the .4 FTE NSA vacant positions or positions filled by employees working two jobs and reductions in FTE of other position to offset part of the cost. The cost of the reorganization is $86,000 of which $50,000 represents providing health benefits for employees that are not eligible due to the few hours that they work. TEACHER INDUCTION PROGRAM PROGRAM (BTSA) - ongoing $278,000 base grant funds starting in 2018-19 It costs the District approximately $278,000 annually to support our beginning teachers depending on the number of enrollees into the program each year. Currently, there are 48 teacher participants in our district program. The expenses include a BTSA Coordinator at .40 FTE and 37 mentors, in addition to the per participant fee of $2,000 per participant with a BUSD Mentor or $4,000 per participant if matched with a non BUSD Mentor. The Educator Effectiveness Block Grant was approved as part of the State Budget in 2015-16 and the one-time funding of $1,035,000 from that grant can be used to support the following purposes through 2017-2018: • Beginning Teacher and Administrator Support • Coaching and Support for Improvement • Standards Based Professional Learning • Promoting Quality and Effectiveness The Superintendent is proposing continuing a previously approved use of $278,000 annually between 2015-2016 through 2017-2018 to cover BTSA costs which will relieve the base grant funding of this obligation in the amount of $278,000. The Superintendent is recommending that BTSA be fully funded annually; this will help to ensure compliance and meet new teacher professional development needs. Based on early data for next school year, it appears that there will continue to be approximately be 50 teachers in the program and therefore $278,000 be needed for next year Beginning in 2018-2019, the Educator's Effectiveness Grant sunsets and the annual cost of BTSA will revert to ongoing base grant funding. INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE COORDINATOR $0 - Already fully funded in multi year budget The IB Coordinator position has been absorbed into the base grant funding in 2016-17 and therefore, is already in the multi-year projections for 2017-18 and 2018-19. Berkeley High’s International Baccalaureate accreditation requires a full-time IB coordinator. Originally fully funded by a private donor for multiple years, BHS parents and the BHS Development Group worked with site staff to solicit contributions to fund the position over time until the district could assume full funding for the position. The arrangement and gradual release of funding by parents and private donors outlined in April of 2014 was discontinued early and the District is paying full funding in the current year: 2014/15 school year $10,000 2015/16 school year $20,000 2016/17 school year - reached full funding, no additional support from BHSDG as planned 2017/18 already in base grant in MYP as full funding ROP PROGRAM COSTS - Use one-time CTE grant funding for 2017-18 and 2018-19 to cover reduction in ROP revenue The Local Control Funding Formula eliminated dedicated funding for the Regional Occupational Centers and Programs (ROCP) grant. Under a CCCOE BUSD transitional funding formula, funding from ROP zeros out after the 2018 - 2019 school year. Currently 14 CTE sections are supported through ROP funds.
ROP $ | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | District Share | 98,215 | 163,147 | 278,748 | 295,002 | 347,416 | CCCOE Share | 249,201 | 153,133 | 68,668 | 52,414 | 0 |
CCCOE revenue to support the District’s ROP program has been decreasing since 2013-14 from $347,416 to $153,133 in 2016-17 and will continue to decrease until funding is no longer provided. The 2016-17 budget includes revenue from CCCOE of $184,289 which was over projected by $31,156. Therefore, the 2017-18 multi-year projections will need to decrease revenue by $31,156 and decrease by another $84,465 based on further reduction of the county share for a total of $115,621. In 2017-18, a total of $50,000 will be funded within the current unrestricted CTE budget and the balance of $65,621 is requested from ongoing base grant funding. It should be noted that the cost of this program for 2016-17 is $382,000 offset by $153,133 in revenue. In 2018-19 through 2019-20 the District’s ROP program will have only a small resource and the full cost of $382,000 plus any COLA be funded out of base grant or will need a another funding source to continue. The state has provided Career Technical Education Incentive Grant (CTEIG) funding through June 30, 2019 in order to encourage the development of new Career Technical Education programs and to support and strengthen current CTE programs through the transition to LCFF. State funding for CTE after June 30, 2019 is unclear. A total of 1.5 FTE ROP teachers can be transferred to the CTEIG grant for two years (2017-2019) for a total of $307,200 in one time savings. This will allow the the base grant to continue to fund the CTE Coordinator for two more years or until more grant funding is obtained. Under the proposed budget reductions under discussion section of the Board agenda, the Superintendent is recommending that the CTE Coordinator position be cut if there is no restricted funding source to lack of revenue for ROP. SPECIAL EDUCATION CONTRIBUTION - $153,000 ongoing base grant contribution to STRS In the 2016-17, the special education budget increased over the prior year 2015-16 budget for non-public agencies and settlements. At second interim, the District increased the ongoing special education budget by $147,000. Therefore, this increase is already included in the multi-year budget. Currently settlement cost are trending within budget and non-public agencies are trending at or higher than prior year. Staff will meet to discuss non-public agency cost to determine if there is an opportunity to contain these cost. Non-public agency cost are currently budgeted at $2.9 million and was $3.1 million in 2015-16. Non-public school costs are currently budgeted at $1.3 million and was $1.4 million last year. The cost of the additional contribution for STRS for 2017-18 is $153,000 and the $147,000 contribution increased at second interim has been rolled in the multi-year projections for a total of increase of $300,000 for 2017-18. The Special Education budget needs to be closely monitored during budget development to determine if proposed increase needs to be adjusted. ONGOING BUDGET REDUCTIONS REDUCTION OF 2.0 FTE AT BTA - ongoing $204,798 Berkeley Technology Academy (BTA) serves some of our highest needs students, in terms of both social-emotional and academic needs. BUSD has historically staffed the site at a 15:1 student to teacher ratio (assuming an enrollment of 150), even though the BSEP measure stipulates 18:1. This staffing ratio has resulted in the assignment of 10 full time teachers to BTA, with the General Fund and BSEP each providing 5 FTE. However, with enrollment declining steadily over time, actual enrollment has been in a range of 60-100 students over the past five years, while the school has remained staffed as if for a larger population, which has resulted in student/teacher ratios of 10:1 or below in many classes. The proposed allocation would provide staffing in 2017-18 of 8.0 FTE for a student enrollment goal of 90 students, with the General Fund contributing 2.53 FTE and BSEP contributing 2.54 FTE at a calculation of 18:1 via the Teacher Template, and an additional 2.93 FTE would be provided through Classroom Support from BSEP REDUCTION OF CENTRAL OFFICE NON-SALARY BUDGETS - ongoing $225,000 Cabinet held two budget retreats to review central office budgets and make reductions to offset the budgeted structural deficit in 2017-18. Staff reduced central office non-salary budgets for most departments by $15,000 to $25,000 for a total of $225,000. Staff will establish a budget cut target for 2017-18 and 2018-19 and will continue to work on more budget reduction proposals in the upcoming weeks and months. The Superintendent’s budget advisory committee held its first meeting to address budget priorities and reductions and will meet throughout the budget development process. BHS SAFETY OFFICER With a current unfilled vacancy, staff proposes to leave that position vacant and thereby reduce safety officer staffing at BHS by 1.0 FTE in 2017-2018. Recent reclassifications of campus monitors in BUSD to full School Safety Officers means that despite this reduction BHS will retain a safety officer staff of 15 full time employees. ONE TIME EXPENDITURES 2017-18 and 2018-19 COMMON CORE IMPLEMENTATION AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING - $1,069,590 one-time funds The District has made significant investments over the past three years to support the transition to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). This effort will benefit from an extension of investments at all grade levels and in most subject areas for professional learning and materials. The Superintendent is requesting continued funding for professional development and instructional coaching relative to new strategies, new curriculum, and key shifts in the approach to mathematics, science, and literacy instruction at elementary, middle, and high school. The funds requested will also continue to support the implementation and continued development of the new math program for the high school. While the budget for these core related expenditures will be reduced overall next year, increases in some areas of the Next Generation Science Standards as well as some areas of professional development can be seen in the proposed budget. Attached is an updated budget proposal for common core/NGSS that requests $1,069,590 for the 2017-2018 School Year. During school years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015, the Board approved use of a State-provided $1.8 million in one-time funds which could be used for CCSS implementation. The Board approved $931,000 in one time mandated cost reimbursement funds for CCSS implementation in 2015-16, and an additional $1,386,730 was approved for school year 2016-2017 for the same purposes. There is no guarantee that the State will provide more restricted funding for implementation of Common Core or NGSS, yet the State has recommended that districts continue to use part or all of the mandated cost reimbursement funds (which are unrestricted and can be used for any educational purpose) to fund resource needs for Common Core. At some point, common core will be fully implemented. Therefore, these cost should significantly reduce in subsequent years. The Superintendent is recommending a reduction of about 50% of the one-time cost in 2018-19. The Superintendent is recommending that the Board reserve an additional $509,000 in one-time funding for fiscal year 2018-19. This allocation represents a substantial reduction based on the premise that Common Core should be substantially implemented in its fifth year, as well as the fact that the 2018-19 budget is facing a structural deficit; in light of this structural deficit, maintaining reserves becomes increasingly critical as the District works to balance the budget. Should additional and/or more specific funding for common core become available between now and January of 2018, staff would obviously seek to first utilize those funds toward the proposed investments in common core and thus preserve more flexible funding like mandated cost reimbursements for other educational expenses. ATTACHMENT A includes an updated version of the CCSS budget proposal. ATOD PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION - $70,000 one-time cost For 2014-15 through 2016-17, the City of Berkeley and BUSD agreed to provide matching contributions of $70,000 each towards a contract with New Bridge Foundation to provide the ASPIRE Program, a research-based ATOD (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs) prevention and intervention program that includes a therapeutic component and education at Berkeley High School, Longfellow Middle School and King Middle School. The ASPIRE Program is already offered through New Bridge at Berkeley Technology Academy and Willard Middle School through a grant. The program provides ATOD education and intervention support for students who are in possession and/or under the influence of ATOD while under school jurisdiction. ATOD intervention is used in lieu of suspension whenever feasible and allowed by law. Staff is recommending that this position be funded for fiscal year 2017-2018; the city match funding of $70,000 is expected to continue. TECHNOLOGY NEEDS (CHROMEBOOKS) - one-time $40,000 base grant funds Digital skills are now a necessity for students at all levels, and providing each student with the opportunity to master these skills is is an essential component of the instructional day. From an equity lens, ensuring that these skills are integrated into our curriculum and taught during the school day. ensures all our students are equipped to access the curriculum. There has been a very successful initiative in the elementary schools to have a cart with a Chromebook for each student in each grade 4 and 5 classroom and pairs of 3rd grade classrooms share Chromebook carts. Extensive PD and coaching was provided to classroom teachers (resulting in ~80 Google Certified Educators). An elementary Working Group developed an Instructional Technology scope and sequence that identified logical curricular tie-ins for increased use of technology, as well guided lessons about digital citizenship with the intention of achieving Common Sense Media Certification. In a March 2017 survey of 4th and 5th grade teachers, In terms of change to their instructional day: 91% of teachers thought it made either a large (67%) or moderate (24%) amount of change in the instructional day In terms of engagement: 97% of teachers thought it made either a large (81%) or moderate (16%) amount of change in student engagement in their classroom In terms of student learning: 93% of teachers thought it made either a large (53%) or moderate (40%) amount of change in student learning in their classroom In terms of the teacher’s ability to assess student learning, 87% of teachers thought it made a large (47%) or moderate (40%) amount of change in student learning Professional Development (three half-day sessions for all 4th-5th grade teachers) was very well-received (and attended) by the teachers.
Collaboration with principals, teachers and other school staff has been ongoing for the 2017-18 for providing a similar 1:1 environment in 6th grade, including the professional development for teachers. Funds from one-time sale of property have largely covered 1:1 for 6th grade classrooms, however there is a gap of $40,000 for 17-18. In 18-19, there is a need for $91,000 to complete 1:1 in all grade levels at the middle schools. Larger amounts of funds may be needed in out years depending on the long-term funding model for Chromebooks in elementary and middle schools. Professional development costs including the stipends for Google Certification and participation in the annual August Instructional Technology Institute held at our Adult School are already allocated for 17-18. As part of the Common Core one-time expenses, an Instructional Technology Coordinator was approved for 2016-17 and is proposed for 2017-18. It is understood the position is not funded for 2018-19. DISTRICT WEBSITE REDESIGN - one-time $40,000 in base grant funds The Communications Team, chaired by BSEP & Community Relations Director Natasha Beery, is requesting up to $40,000 for a redesign of the district web site. It has been six years since the website template was adopted, and the current site does not take advantage of newer concepts in web technology (look at Palo Alto USD - https://www.pausd.org - for a good example), which is friendlier for use on mobile devices and easier to navigate. The BHS web page follows the same template as the district site, and would also follow the new template. OLDER ADULT PROGRAM FUNDING - $70,000 (A reduction from $100,000 in base grant funding from the prior year In 2015-16, the State budget brought a new stream of revenue dedicated to adult education. The District’s Adult Education Block Grant for 2016-17 is $2.7 million. The adult education consortium increased the funding for 2016-17 by $.3 million. Most likely the District will receive the same level of funding of $3 million for 2017-18 school year. However, this new revenue stream has somewhat different requirements and restrictions than previous adult education revenue. The new funding can no longer cover the Older Adult Program which was covered from the prior Adult Education base grant funding used at the same level. The new funding is not to be used to support courses designed for older adults (e.g., exercise, the arts, memory health) which have been consistently offered by BAS for many years. Older Adult Education programs include lifelong learning courses for active seniors as well as frail elderly programs that are often held at senior centers or convalescent facilities. These programs are in fact fee-based, yet large segments of the students enrolled in these programs receive significantly discounted enrollment fees as a result if lower incomes. Despite the fact that the programs are fee-based, last year, as in the preceding few years, fees covered only 7% of the total costs of lifelong learning and frail elderly programs combined. Specifically, in 2016-2017, the total costs of older adult programs combined was $207,527 while the fees collected is projected to total $19,400. The Board approved one time base grant funds of $100,000 to cover the balance. For 2017-18, staff is recommended a reduced one time funding of $70,000 and increase fees in the amount $30,000. Adult Education funds will cover the balance of the program cost with existing fees and unrestricted budget. The proposal for 2018-19, is to reduce the support from base grant funds to $60,000. TWO NEW SCHOOL BUSES - one-time base grant funds of $326,000 On September 21, 2016, the board approved a bus replacement schedule and replacement of three (3) buses in 2016-17. The replacement of buses on the schedule for subsequent years would be determined annually during budget priorities. Staff is recommending that the board approve bus replacement of the two (2) buses on the bus replacement schedule for 2017-18. The two buses that will be replaced do not have seat belts. The Superintendent is recommending that due to projected deficit in 2018-19 of $1.2 million that bus replacements on the 2018-19 schedule not be placed on hold. TRANSITION SUPPORT AT WILLARD MIDDLE SCHOOL - one-time $60,000 base grant funds With a projected addition of two sixth grade classes and an increase in enrollment overall at Willard Middle next year, staff is recommending short term support with that transition. The principal has requested additional counseling and/or student support periods to meet the needs of an increased population. The additional sections added to Willard for 2017-18 are explicitly a one time support and continuance of a comparable amount of additional supports beyond that year will require Educational Services to find that revenue through the use of other funds or through Other Budget Priority Considerations if More Funding Becomes Available TECHNOLOGY SERVER SPECIALIST - $120,000 ongoing cost While the creation of the Technology Supervisor has led to much improved response to technology needs at the schools, there is still a significant lack of capacity to maintain our VMWare server infrastructure, which includes PowerSchool, Print Servers for schools, VersaTrans and Fleet Vision (Transportation), Destiny (Library), Read 180 (instructional), Shoretel and Mitel (telephones), Food Service (Nutrition Services), and other servers. Currently, the server responsibilities are juggled by several people in the Tech Department, but the lack of a clearly identified point person causes issues with timely support and the ability to fix issues quickly. Staff has identified the need for a Server Specialist to support these needs. This position is not fully costed out, but with fringe benefits would likely be $110,000-$120,000. SECOND REGISTERED NURSE (RN)- $120,000 ongoing cost to be split cost 50/50 with Medi-Cal Collaborative Funding Due to the significant increase in the number of students with diabetes, and given the new regulations regarding EpiPen maintenance and training, Hearing/Vision screenings, and pre-enrollment immunization requirements, our current 1.0 FTE RN is unable to sustain the needs of these students along with the additional duties to assess, serve, and support students with IEPs who have significant health conditions. A bill currently pending in legislation proposes a staffing ratio for nurses as 1:750 healthy students. Currently in BUSD the ratio is 1:6,500 (K-8 only). Staff is identifying a need for an additional 1.0 FTE for another District Registered Nurse (RN) for $120,000 including benefits to be split 50/50 with Medi-Cal Collaborative funding. CUSTODIAL SUPPORT FOR EMERSON AND JOHN MUIR - ongoing $65,000 base grant funds Facilities Operations is requesting an increase in evening custodial support from a .5 FTE to a 1.0 (Full time) FTE at each site. Currently the two schools share or split one evening custodian and receive approximately 3 hours each of evening custodial support. Some years back, both John Muir and Emerson had a full time evening custodian as well as a full time day custodian. As a response to a temporary district budget crisis, our evening custodians were cut back to .5 FTE, or half time positions. Due to that change, our schools are currently not being cleaned nor maintained in a manner that keeps them consistently ready for instruction. Currently both schools have over 300 students, John Muir has increased enrollment from 245 in 2011 to 302 in 2016, and over time, both schools have significantly increased the amount of services, service providers, and room space used both during and after school. These systems require additional cleaning and maintenance. Because the two schools share the same Evening Custodian, there are at least 3 hours that one of the schools is running their after school program without a custodian on site or available for emergencies. Finally, due to the challenging timing of the cleaning schedules and start time of the schools, the school space is not ready for students each morning. For example, we need the classrooms, the cafeteria, the Library, the bathrooms and ideally the yards and the hallways, all ready for use by the start of each school day. Currently, our Evening Custodian can only do limited cleaning each evening at each site, so our Day Custodians have to clean classrooms, bathrooms, halls, the cafeteria and the Library before the start of the school day. This is impossible in the hours before school starts, so spaces are not ready for the students each morning. This lack of staffing is causing serious health and safety concerns for both John Muir and Emerson Elementary Schools. OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST (OT) - Ongoing $100,000 cost split cost 50/50 with Medi-Cal Collaborative Funding Currently Special Education staffs 5.0 FTE for occupational therapist service providers + 1.0 FTE for a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA) to serve students with IEPs. However, there is a significant need for OTs to provide services to students who do not have an IEP via RtI support, teacher training or for 504 Plan services. Currently the SpEd OTs serve 25% of their time addressing general education student & staff needs which takes away their available time to serve students with IEPs who require their services. Staff is identifying a need for an additional 1.0 FTE for another Occupational Therapist (OT) for $100,000 including benefits to be split 50/50 with Medi-Cal Collaborative funding. HUMAN RESOURCES GENERALIST - ongoing $128,000 base grant funds The Payroll Department performs some of the duties which should be performed in Human Resources. This has been a concern for many years but there have not been enough resources in Human Resources to address it. The job functions that Payroll performs on behalf of Human Resources include employee setups in the system, salary schedules, and STRS and PERS monitoring and compliance. Based on auditing standards, there should be a segregation of duties between employment processing of new hires and processing of payroll. Currently Payroll performs both sides of the transaction due to the lack of resources in Human Resources to perform this function. The compensating control is that HR provides a supporting document to payroll for the salary placement for Payroll staff to input the information on their behalf which creates a lot of unnecessary paperwork. In other Districts, the employee setup in the system is performed in Human Resources. The input of employee setups by Human Resources will prevent duplication of work and reduce the volume of paperwork flowing between departments. Payroll operates with a Payroll Supervisor and two Payroll Specialist and due to the enormous work flow have not been able to ensure accuracy with salary payment and STRS and PERS reporting. The District was recently audited and many discrepancies were noted with the STRS and PERS reporting in that Human Resources should be monitoring and processing. Compared to most school districts with the size of Berkeley’s budget, the Human Resource department is larger and contain more than one HR Generalist. The HR Generalist will focus on transactional and administrative duties to increase the efficiency of customer service delivery. A Generalist assists senior management by providing human resources services including talent acquisition, employment processing, compensation management, training and development and records management. In addition, develops human resources solutions by collecting and analyzing information and recommending courses of action. This includes organizational data maintenance, leveraging knowledge base to troubleshoot and resolve a variety of system challenges, conducting regular audits and reconciling data to ensure accuracy, leveraging workflow tools, and collaborating with other departments to establish sound operational systems and procedures. The Generalist prepares reports by collecting, analyzing and summarizing data and trends. The Generalist also ensures compliance with federal, state and local legal requirements including STRS and PERS by studying existing and new legislation, anticipating legislation and enforcing adherence to requirements and advising management on needed actions. Staff is identifying the need for an HR Generalist in Human Resources for $128,000 including benefits. FISCAL IMPACT:
The District has limited ongoing base grant funding. The increase in base grant funding is $.5 million in 2017-18. The increase of the $.4 million in base grant funds is at risk if the District’s enrollment does not increase by a projected 60 ADA to make up part of the enrollment decline in 2016-17 of 127. Additionally, there are also increasing costs including step and column, inflation (CPI), and increases in employer-paid retirement costs of $1.1 million for STRS and PERS due to the State’s increase in rates. Employer-paid retirement costs are scheduled to increase another $1.1 million in fiscal year 2018-19. After the impact of the Governor’s January Budget, the District is projected to have a structural deficit of $.5 million in 2017-18 after removing the impact of one-time revenue of $.4 million. The Staff recommendations will cost $342,621 in ongoing base funding offset by budget reductions of $485,798 for a total reduction in the structural deficit for 2017-18 of $93,177. Therefore, there is still a structural deficit of .4 million. The staff recommendation also includes a request for $1.5 million in one-time base grant funds for 2017-18. This will decrease the projected fund balance for 2017-18 from $6.6 million to $5.1 million. The projected one-time cost increases for 2018-19 of $.5 Million which will reduce the projected ending fund balance for 2018-19 by $3.9 million above the 3% state required reserve. See attached spreadsheet of multi-year projections including budget priorities. There are also no negotiated salary increases included in the multi-year projections. The BHS redesign was added to the 2017-18 budget priorities because a decision is needed now to beginning implementation of the redesign in 2017-18 for the 2018-19 school year. The budget reductions for 2018-19 in the amount of $1.2 million was included as a discussion item of this board agenda to address structural deficit in 2018-19 and incorporate the cost of the BHS redesign. See additional attached spreadsheet with multi-year projections including budget priorities and possible 2018-19 budget reductions. The demands for unrestricted general funding include many competing programs and services; funding is limited. Staff in conjunction with the Board will need to prioritize District programs and make trade-offs to ensure that the programs and services due not create unmanageable structural deficit. Staff recognizes that based on these projections and deficit spending needs to be monitored. The Superintendent’s budget advisory committee will be reviewing proposed cuts and providing input on budget and reductions and will meet throughout the budget development process. STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Approve the Superintendent’s recommendation for budget priorities and reductions for 2017-18 and BHS Redesign for the 9th grade for 2018-19.
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