What the state’s cuts actually mean for one local school
WATSONVILLE —In the lobby of Landmark Elementary School, Lupita Galvan, the office manager, answers calls from parents, most of them in Spanish.
To her left is a poorly lit nurse’s office, no nurse in site, with the door open. A boy sits on a plastic bed holding his knee.
And to her right sits an overflowing bulletin board. TEACHER WISH LISTS, it reads. A dozen or so wish lists are stapled to the board. Each one has a picture of the teacher, her name and a list of basic school supplies that she’ll have to dig into her own pocket to pay for if parents don’t chip in. The lists include requests for pencils, markers, glue sticks, paper, tissues and printer cartridges.
But their biggest wishes don’t make the list.
After the Pajaro Valley school board announced an anticipated loss of $17 million in state funding this year, the teachers’ requests have become more fundamental. They hope for a library, buses, after school programs, music classes and most alarmingly, their own jobs.
“If these budget cuts go through we’ll lose a third or more of our staff,” said Jennifer Wildman, the principal at Landmark Elementary School. “We’re scrambling asking ourselves what we can cut. But we’ve already cut so much.”
Now she is asking herself not what she can cut but who.
“We’re being forced to ask what’s more important to the school — a custodian or a librarian,” Wildman said. After a brief pause, she added, “Well, the bathroom has to be cleaned.”
In five years of operation, Landmark Elementary School has seen two major budget cuts. Last year alone, the district sliced $8 million from the district’s budget. At Landmark Elementary School that has meant pulling the plug on music classes and slimming down the physical education programs. Long before that teachers started to dig into their own wallets for basic school supplies.
But with a $17 million deficit now lingering over the Pajaro Valley Unified School District (PVUSD), changes are about to cut right to the bone.
Wildman said the cutbacks would impact all levels and departments in the school district. Pay freezes, pay cuts and layoffs are all possible. If half of Landmark Elementary School’s teachers receive pink slips — a worst case scenario — that would push class sizes beyond 30 students. This at an already underperforming school where only 20 percent of the students read at the state level.
Most of the students come from socio-economically disadvantaged homes. More than 75 percent of them receive free lunches through a federal program designed to provide nutritious lunches to those who can’t afford them.
“The kids are already being hit hard by the economy,” Wildman said. “Their families are losing their homes and they need clothes.”
But the added pressures of larger classrooms, fewer teachers and fewer after school programs could mean even fewer opportunities to achieve success, according to Roberto Torres, the assistant principal at Landmark Elementary School.
The two administrators applauded the teachers for their hard work in the face of these potentially dire circumstances.
“Teachers are tricky,” Wildman said. “They can make do with very little.”
That means working 12-hour days sometimes and grading homework on weekends. But they do an excellent job of keeping the students focused on school and not school cuts, Wildman said.
“The students have no idea.”
So now, Landmark Elementary School must wait along with the rest of PVUSD for the final draft of the district budget that will be released on March 15. The district will send out pink slips to teachers and employees on that date. Though the state’s final budget won’t be finished until late June, the district is preparing for the worst.
“The big thing right now is the uncertainty,” Torres said. “What we have now is barely enough. But it could get a lot worse.”
For now the school is holding staff meetings to discuss what else they could possibly cut. They’re hoping that parents, teachers and administrators will continue sending letters to local and state legislators. But other than that, all that is left to do is wait.
“We’re just hoping it’s crazy talk, and everything will settle,” Wildman said, with a measured laugh. “We’ll do what we have to when the time comes.”