Published on June 23, 2003
By Susan McDonough, STAFF WRITER
RICHMOND - School districts that fall into receivership can suffer from a shift in priorities that does not favor children, officials contended Saturday.
And those districts need special attention from the state and their home communities, said members of a state Assembly select committee meeting in Richmond.
Many attending the meeting at Richmond City Hall and several sitting on the Select Committee on Bridging the Education Gap, headed by Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, said communities served by bankrupt districts need more say in how the state runs their schools, and they need to lower the requirement approving local taxes to support the districts.
"Our urban school districts are in fiscal and academic shambles," said Steve Jubb, director of the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools. "They are both lacking the money to get the job done, and they are not using the resources they have well. Both are true."
The most contentious moment came when Erik Skinner, a state Office of Education official, suggested that his agency not only is concerned with balancing the budgets of districts in receivership, but also with improving the quality of education.
Several in the audience of about 100, which included many teachers, booed and shouted at him.
"I have some respect for school leaders who exceed their budgets, who take that chance," said former Oakland schools superintendent Pete Mesa. "They feel morally compelled to take that chance because it's too serious not to. There has to be some kind of a way out for that superintendent."
Educators here have strong feelings about state receivership. A short drive down Interstate 80, the Oakland Unified School District this month accepted a $100 million state bailout package that required the school board to cede decision-making authority to a state-appointed administrator.
It's the same fate experienced a decade ago by the West Contra Costa school district, and two years ago by Emeryville schools.
"What the state takeover did to our school district, what we found out that no one really knew before, was that the number one priority of the state Office of Education was not the education of our children," said West Contra Costa school board member George Harris III. "The number one priority was balancing the budget."
Speakers said districts on the brink of fiscal collapse often lack the record keeping and technology to efficiently track expenditures, and administrators often need training in budgeting.
That, and the awkward timing of the state budget, which is usually adopted after local government agencies are required to set their own budgets, leaves many districts without accurate financial pictures for the coming year.
"There is only one purpose when the state takes over, and that is to restore fiscal capacity, integrity, accountability," said Henry Der, the state administrator running Emeryville schools. "Once a district is able to achieve that, it is time for the state administrator to get out."
Fixes recommended by the panel included changing the structure of state school funding to increase discretionary funding and tapping the communities served by state-run districts for more resources.