District has variety of improvement projects under way
By Jon Chown
WATSONVILLE — After several years of recessionary cuts to its budget, the Pajaro Valley Unified School District is suddenly flush with cash and has a reliable source for more — and it’s spending it.
The main reason for the influx is new legislation called the Local Control Funding Formula, which puts an emphasis on providing more money for students who are either English language learners or are economically disadvantaged. Enacted as part of the 2013-2014 budget package, PVUSD Chief Business Officer Brett McFadden said it is the most sweeping change to school funding in the past 40 years.
“It completely changes and alters the way school districts approach their programming and financing of public education programs,” McFadden said. “It’s comprehensive and fundamental. We haven’t seen such a sweeping reform put in place since the old model was put in place 40 years ago.”
The Local Control Funding Formula focuses resources based on a school’s student demographics. The base amount per student rises as the grade level rises, but a supplemental grant equal to 35 percent of the base grant is provided for every English-language learner, or every student who qualifies for free school lunches. For schools where more than half of the student body is either poor or English-language learners, an additional grant of 35 percent of the base total is added on. All this means a lot more money for the PVUSD due to the demographics of south Santa Cruz County. No school is to receive less funding than the previous year, and over the first five years, spending per student is projected to increase by more than $2,700.
“Our funding will go up approximately $6 million this year,” McFadden said, but added that the money will come with some headaches.
“We haven’t been given the regulatory guidelines and stipulations on how to spend that money,” McFadden said. “The fine print has not been provided to us yet.”
McFadden said the state is to issue those guidelines in March and the PVUSD will only have until June 30 to adopt a Local Control Accountability Plan.
“We will have three very short quick months to get everything in place,” McFadden said. “We are going to be remodeling our jetliner while its in flight.”
The district, McFadden said, is already making changes in anticipation of what is coming. The PVUSD Board of Trustees recently adopted Phase 1 of a reinvestment plan, which most notably reduced sizes in first grade classes from 30 pupils down to 24. The new legislation requires the PVUSD to eventually reduce class sizes for grades kindergarten through third grade.
“We adopted the largest package of reinvestments and restorations of any district in northern California,” McFadden said. “We brought back middle school counselors. … We brought back stipends for coaches and activity directors and we brought custodians back to high schools.”
Measure L, the bond measure passed in November to fix the district’s fixing facilities, has also put some money in the district’s coffers, but it’s more of a trickle at this point. The district has not been in a huge hurry to issue the bonds, McFadden said, because projects take so much time to advance. School construction has to be approved by the Division of the State Architect — certain materials have to be used and certain contractors can only be used.
“It’s very regulated,” McFadden said. “It can take 8-12 months to get approval on plans once they’re submitted. So it takes a long time to jump start a bond program.”
But McFadden said the district was able to jump-start the process.
“Our approach was to launch a set of specific projects that don’t need state review or will get quick approval,” McFadden said.
Currently, the district is bidding on a number of playground structures. Eleven elementary schools have been identified for upgrades to their playground and Bradley Elementary is one of them. Bradley will also be receiving technology upgrades, with a new wireless system, cabling and even a computer lab.
“We are trying to get all our schools on a level playing field,” McFadden said.
Both Aptos High School and Bradley Elementary are also on a list of six PVUSD schools that will have solar carports. Watsonville High, Pajaro Valley High, Hall District Elementary and Rolling Hills Middle School are the other four schools.
Other changes in the works are synthetic athletic fields that won’t require watering.
“We are shooting for a groundbreaking at one of the schools in September,” McFadden said.
