There is stimulus money available. However their use requires leadership and the management of creative options. SCUSD management is addressing the Governor's proposed May 14th cuts with all of the money from two parts of the stimulus. These cuts are still being negotiated and may not end up as deep as the Governor desires. Even if they are there may be a couple of million left of in these two pots since there are still some variables in the allocation. So taking a prudent risk in this area - knowing we still have millions in various reserve accounts in SCUSD - would be one way to fund summer school with stimulus money. The third pot of stimulus money is Title One and it has not been factored into summer school. The district will take over million dollars dollars off the top as an administrative fee which then becomes general fund money available for summer school. The remaining 10 million or so in Title One stimulus is available to be spent with some restrictions. Those restrictions include a focus on the most academically needy - which is the same focus as the reduced summer school services. Another restriction is the approval of School Site Councils - which is where leadership comes in. There is a pathway to safeguard students from these latest cuts but the Board needs to insist that staff map it out rather than staying on the easy road of past practice.

According to a recent survey by the California State PTA, nearly 41% of parent-teacher organizations in the state report summer-school cuts. That means a majority are finding another way. Per Ed Data at October 08 CBEDS California had 6,275,469 enrolled K-12 students. LAUSD had 693,680 of them for 11%, not 25%. SDUSD's Board spent 12 hours on June 1st to close a $63 billion budget gap without laying off teachers or reducing summer school. These cuts are a panic response by a management that does not know how to navigate through a crisis except by cutting the most obvious rather than the least necessary. The last revised budget in June projects that SCUSD will decrease funding for certificated and classified staff by 8 M this year while increasing supplies and services by 22 M. Now we need reduce staff funding further and wonder how this represents a budget focused on student need.