In the Sacramento Bee Today

Stockpile could save Natomas district from making job cuts
By Robert Faturechirfaturechi@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Feb. 20, 2009 - 12:00 am Page 6B

Next month, school officials across the state will notify teachers and librarians that they might be laid off. But at Sacramento's Natomas Unified School District, employees are breathing easy because the district is not expected to send out the warnings, despite one of the worst economic downturns in recent memory. District administrators have stockpiled reserve funds to insulate staff and programs from cuts in state funding. State law requires layoff notices for certified employees – mostly teachers and librarians – who might be let go by the end of the school year.
With deep midyear cuts expected from the state, more of these notes will go out this spring, and from more districts, which makes Natomas' situation even more unusual. For years the district has enjoyed growing enrollment – a major source of funding. It has built a hefty rainy day reserve of more than $10 million, about four times greater than the 3 percent reserve most districts strive for. "This is certainly a rainy day," said board President Teri Burns. "But we are counting on those reserves."
The district expects to use $5.4 million of those funds this school year, allowing it to avoid layoffs. That's a sharp contrast to neighboring districts where dozens, and in some cases hundreds, of employees will receive layoff notifications. By March 15, notices are expected to go to 600 to 700 employees of the Elk Grove Unified district, 100 to 200 at Folsom Cordova Unified, more than 100 at Rocklin Unified, and up to 3,000 at San Juan Unified.
Though districts don't usually lay off all, or even most, employees they notify, the notices can give an idea of the upper limits for layoffs. Natomas Unified's skipping the notices cannot be attributed solely to good planning. Enrollment at the district has grown in recent years as the district rode a wave of development in the area. Propped up by years of prosperity, and motivated by a budget scare caused by overstaffing in 2001, district administrators have been able to slowly build their reserves better than most other districts. "At that time we had vowed we'd start to rebuild reserves and have been steadily doing that since," said John Christ, assistant superintendent of business services. "Everyone's spending a little less than their budget."
Without the reserves, Burns said, some athletic programs and reduced class sizes would likely have been on the chopping block this year. "At the end of the year, if we have extra money, we put it in the reserve rather than just spend it," Burns said. "Unlike the state of California."

Natomas Teachers’ Association Newsletter, Feb. 2009

Calendar of Events:
§ Rep Council Meeting – Thurs, Feb. 5th 4:00 pm, LFG, Room 406
§ School Board Mtg. – Wed, Feb. 11th, D.O. 6:30 pm
§ Sacramento Educ. Coalition, Thurs. Feb 5th, 6:00 pm at CTA on Truxel.

Board Member Meetings:
§ Lisa Kaplan - Monday, Feb. 9th, 4:30
§ Jules Tran, Sue Heredia- Monday, Feb. 9th, 6:00 pm
§ Bruce Roberts- Tues., Feb. 10th, 4:00
§ Teri Burns – Tues. Feb. 10th, 5:30pm

Board member meetings will all be held at Giovanni’s Pizzeria (2701 Del Paso Rd) and are generally the Monday and Tuesday before board meetings each month.

Don’t forget to check out the NTA blog:
http://natomasteachers.blogspot.com

Negotiations Update
A negotiation session was held Thursday, February 5th (today) so there are no details at the time of this publishing, however we know that the retirement incentive is being discussed. Site reps will be updated as soon as details are known.

Budget Watch
District: The superintendent told NTA leadership that they will post an updated list of possible budget cuts on the website and additionally send through email to employees. As soon as NTA receives any definitive information, it will be disseminated to site reps. If need be, we’ll call a General Membership meeting for our members to get more information and for a forum for you to ask questions.
We believe the board will be discussing the budget at the Feb. 11th Board Meeting, and then again at a special board meeting Feb. 25th. In talking with other surrounding districts (Elk Grove, Sac City, San Juan and Folsom-Cordova) their association leadership have been notified of several special emergency board meetings dealing with possible budget cuts (you may have seen some of this in the media). Ultimately, our own school board will be making these decisions, but in speaking with our superintendent, as of Tuesday, Feb. 3rd, he says he does not plan to do layoffs. He is, however, very interested in categorical flexibility and is likely to recommend this towards CSR. Again, this is up to the board to decide. (Items regarding the contract will of course have to be negotiated and you will be notified of these.) Dr. Farrar says the district’s list will have a lot of ideas on the table. It appears that the superintendents are frequently talking to each other. You can view Folsom-Cordova’s similar list at their web site:
http://www.fcusd.org/budget/Budget%20Reduction%20Brainstorming.asp


If you have any association questions or issues please contact your site rep(s):
· American Lakes: Naomi Nakahara
· Bannon Creek: Linda Wells
· Discovery HS: Therese Collentine
· H. Allen Hight: Allyson Kirby
· Heron: Kou Moua, Peter Talbot, Cara Kruse
· Inderkum HS: Patricia Hite-Leach, Ken MacPherson, Scott MacMillan
· Jefferson: Maureen Ramos
· Leroy Green MS: Kristen Rocha, Justin Vorhauer
· Natomas HS: Joel Schweiger, Ruth Ward, Ben Layne
· Natomas MS: Emilio Moran, Anthony Katsaris
· Natomas Park: Lauren Frazer
· Two Rivers: Phil Cox, Jerry Lovejoy
· Witter Ranch: Tanya Praest, Jim Clarke, Kim Chambers

Here are the school board members home
e-mails. Feel free to contact them:

Bruce Roberts bruceroberts4natomas@yahoo.com

Jules Tran jules.tran@sbcglobal.net

Sue Heredia heredias@csus.edu

Teri Burns terib@sia-us.com

Lisa Kaplan kaplan4kids@yahoo.com


Brenda’s School Visitation Schedule

Thurs. Feb. 5th – Natomas Park Elem.
Tues. Feb. 10th – Leroy Greene MS
Wed. Feb. 11th – Natomas HS,
Discovery HS
Thurs. Feb. 12th – Natomas Middle
Friday, Feb. 13th – Inderkum HS
Wed. Feb. 18th – Bannon Creek Elem.
Friday, Feb. 20th – Jefferson Elem.
Wed. Feb. 25th – American Lakes
Thurs. Feb. 26th – Heron K-8


You are invited
to an
NTA social
WHEN: FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20TH
WHERE: MALABAR RESTAURANT
2960 Del Paso Road
TIME: 2:30PM-6:30PM
Come relax, and enjoy the company of your fellow colleagues
Hors D’oeuvres provided by NTA - drinks on your own
Raffles will be held throughout the evening (must be present to win)

Future Events of interest:

Feb 13th – Budget Action Day (everyone please wear blue in solidarity)

Non-re-elect deadline and RIF deadline (also known as “black Friday”) –March 12th (March 13th is a non-work day in Natomas)

Transfer and Reassignment paperwork and processing – March/April

May 3-9th – Teacher Appreciation Week

California Day of the Teacher – May 13th

Election of NTA Officers – May

State Budget: CTA is monitoring the latest budget activities from the legislature and governor. You can check out the CTA website for what is happening and things that you can do at www.cta.org

Also, CTA is hosting the Sacramento Education Coalition, which will be meeting on Thursday, Feb. 5th at CTA on Truxel, 6:00 pm. The Ed. Coalition includes CSEA, PTA, superintendents, board members… etc. Last year we also worked with state workers, daycare and elder care agency workers, and even firefighters on activities to help get the budget passed (to try to break the stalemate.)

BLUE BUDGET FRIDAY

REMINDER

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2009

BLUE DAY

WEAR BLUE IN SOLIDARITY TO MOURN THE BUDGET THREATS

Education in the News, Across the State

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