Budget Reductions

The following is a message from MDUSD Board of Education member, Sherry Whitmarsh:

At the Superintendent's Parent Advisory Council last night, Dr. Nicoll presented our current budget situation. For the current school year, the district eliminated over $30 million from our budget and we will need to
make further budget reductions for the 2010 - 2011 and 2011 - 2012 school years. For 2010 - 2011 the amount is $5 million and for 2011 - 2012 the amount is slightly more than $13 million. There are several reasons for this:

1. In its budget slashing mode, the state has reduced our allocation to a
   little less than $5,000 per year per student.
2. We have lost more than 700 student this year, which is over 400 more than projected .

When the agenda is published on Friday, we will be able to see the first list of proposed cuts. To my knowledge the board will not be taking action on this but it will be reviewing and discussing the list of cuts. Additionally it is projected that the state will make additional budget reductions since we are currently in a deficit of over $20 billion. I am sending this email to you so that you can be aware of it and hopefully send me any questions or concerns that you may have when the agenda is published. Please feel free to forward this information to anyone you know that may be interested in the information. What can we do?

On December 14 at 7:00 p.m. at the Willow
Creek Center, the is a local school community meeting. The intent
of this meeting is to get your input to help support core academic programs
like English, math and science and to attract and retain qualified teachers.

You can view the flyer for the community meeting HERE and also in SPANISH.
The MDUSD Board of Education Agenda, including the list of proposed budget cuts will be published on Friday afternoon. You will be able to view it HERE.
The Board of Education meets on Tuesday, December 8, 7:30pm in the district office board room. You can also view the meeting ONLINE.