Bulletin # 3 Section Meeting in San Bernardino
In brief, the section will be looking to maintain/enhance membership, keep the information flowing between members, Chapters, Section, and State. We will be holding an Awards and Installation Event in October in Escondido. A small committee was formed to organize this. We need to keep the costs down and make it more accessible to more members and at the same time raise some money. As our Treasurer, Teresa Loftis, pointed out, there will be no Section rebates from the State planned this year! Andrea Haendiges our Awards Chair will be sending out nomination forms shortly to Chapter Presidents.
It was good to see Charlene Bader from Grossmont and she was voted on to the Board as a Member at Large. Also, we were pleased to welcome Janet Elmore from Riverside and Susan DelaCruz as the new president from San Bernardino. Tom Overdurf and Denis Johnson were there from Palm Springs and Steve Niemeyer, our President Elect, was in attendance from Grossmont.
It was gratifying to see such a good turn out at the meeting and to see the committment to CCAE from the Board. News was received of more cuts proposed at Grossmont and Sharon Howell Sawyer, our Secretary, spoke eloquently of the leadership of Collette Flemming, the now retired Director of Adult Education at Grossmont.
As I drove home to Escondido, my mind started to conjure up images of the October Awards and Installation Event. Perhaps we should call it "Adult Education Octoberfest" , perhaps I should hire an Ompah Band, have dancing, games, beer and order funny green hats, make it a rally to gladden the hearts of all CCAE members in the Southern Section along with guest speakers etc...... Perhaps I had better find a hall rather than the district conference room? We will see. Don't get too carried away now, Brian.
Bulletin #2 President's comments on Leg Report
The answer then was that the adult education funding was too big to leave out if 'flexibility" was going be a viable plan. However, Jeff's latest insight to this question that we are in Tier III "because of the large pot of money that not been allocated through the full implementation of AB23 that authorized the redistriibution of ADA beginningin 2006-07 '' seems to me to me the one that rings true.
Quite simply, legislators must have taken the view that as we were not spending all the money adult education had been allocated, there must indeed be some slack there and room for cuts and flexibility!
I am pleased to see that "the reduction in the number of adults allowed in ROP programs has been suspended aspart of Tier III flexibility,(Hancock Bill). It simply made no sense to be limiting the number of adults in ROP programs either in normal times and particulaly in these times of high unemployment. Adminisistrators will not have to spend time jiggling around converting ROP programs to adult ed. programs
Jeff's futher recommendation that the legislative function become a Section function "rather than organizing a single day in Sacramento" also makes enormous sense to me. I enjoyed Leg Days as much as anyone, but the action is at the local level now.
In fact, it's all about the relationship your school has with its local school district. If they like you and value what you do, your school will survive. If they don't , you won't! Therefore, anything that promotes value and visibilty to your school Board and Superintendent is the way to go in influencing decisions that affect your future.
Bulletin #1 Jeff Frost Leg Update 7/10/09
Your President attended the CCAE State Board meeting held on July 11th at the Holiday Inn Capitol Plaza in Sacramento on July 11th. In the spirit of the times, he stayed at the Vagabond Inn across the street and saved $30! There is much to report from the meeting. However your section Leg Chair, Janice Roselius from San Bernardino went up for the day and attended the Legislative Committe meeting on the Friday, July 10th. She has provided this important report on Jeff Frost's update . Jeff Frost is our longstanding legislative analyst and lobbyist.
Thank you Janice for this excellent report!
CCAE Legislative Commitee Report
Update by Jeff Frost, CCAE Legislative Analyst
Budget
Flexibilitiy
No Changes are being proposed
Adult Ed is in Tier III because of the large pot of money that had not been allocated through the full implementation of AB23 that authorized the redistibution of ADA beginning in 2006-07. The democrats put Adult Ed and ROP into Tier III to avoid raising taxes even though both had support in the legislature as stand alone programs.
The reduction in the number of adults allowed in ROP programs has been suspended as part of Tier III flexibility.
Base Year
There is a proposal to move the base year to 2007-08, but this has not been approved . It may be included in a clean-up bill. If your school site has extenuating circumstances during that year that resulted in a much lower ADA, contact Jeff.
Account Codes
Districts have the option of creating an account code for expending adult education funds, but they are not required to. There is pending legislation to re-instate the codes for Tier III programs to ensure accountability of how funds were spent 2008-09 through 2012-13.
Suspension of Prop 98
Jeff thinks the Democrats will not vote for suspension because it is considered political suicide for them, A possible solution is the elimination of Cal WORKS but the State may lose $4 Billion in federal matching funds. Even the republicans don't want to eliminate it. Reforming it may be good for Adult Ed.
Democrats are planning to pass legislation allowing 55% approval vote for school district parcel taxes instead of the two-third requirement.
August 15 layoff notices for teachers
The union has lots of money to challenge this action in court.
Bills
No important bills affecting adult education are likely for the next four or five years.
Conclusion
Districts will continue to hemorridge, so keep making adult education important to them.
Proposal for legislative committee
Jeff proposed that the legislative effort become a Section function, rather than organizing a single day in Sacramento, that focusses on outreach and awareness locally. He suggested that each agency or Chapter form a team of advocates that would include a teacher, administrator, a businessperson, and a student, The team should meet with the legislator on Fridays during the school year to let them know that adult education is still providing vital services and that SB4 "flexibility" has resulted in Adult Education helping K-12 deal with the fiscal impact of the state budget cuts.Keep communicating with supportive legislators.
In addition, each agency should build a program that is reponsive to the community and get support from community members, businesses and other partners
Legislative Committee Discussion
Strategies under consideration
* Visit the legislators in their local offices with a team
* Inform legislators of the impact of "flexibility" on the district and our programs
* Follow up with the legislators that were visited in Sacramento last March to update them
* Invite legislators to our sites
* Meet in Sacramento in the spring
Next Steps
Cindy Parulan-Colfer, the CCAE State Legislative Chair, will send each Section Leg. Rep. her plan for this next year based on our discussion at the Leg . Meeting. Each section will discusss and decide on the strategies that will work best for their region and as Leg Rep..
Janice Roselius will coordinate our activities,
Thanks again, Janice, for this most excellent report!
July 4th, President's Message
CAAE Members and all employed in the Southern Section Adult Schools:
As we celebrate Independence Day and hopefully relax a little, I know many of you out there in the world of adult education are extremely worried, anxious and concerned about not only your futures but about the future of adult schools in California as we know it.
If we have not done so already, we all need to face up to the fact that this is the worst crisis for the state's adult schools in over the last 150 years of their existence. In our section, there have been summer school and program cuts in Grosssmont, major changes afoot in Sweetwater, and large program cuts in San Bernardino to name but a few. So far, in Escondido we have obviously had to balance our reduced budget, skillfully achieved by our Principal and past CCAE State President, Dom Gagliardi, but we have been spared any "flexibility" sweeping of our funds by our district. However, as many adult schools up and down the state we are introducing a registration fee of $30 for the ABE/GED/High School Diploma and ESL classes.
As for myself, I must confess an unhealthy but fascinating interest (given my economics background) in reading about the crisis and meltdown. In January, I was stocking up on SPAM and other emergency food supplies, much to my wife's annoyance. Now that I have six month's supply, I am feeling a little more relaxed. You may or may not want to take such actions, but make no mistake the worst is yet to come. There will be increasing unemployment in the state and country as the green shoots recovery is recognized as a pure delusion and companies engage in massive lay-offs. We know the the state of California is about to issue IOUs as there is no budget resolution with the $24 Billion deficit, about a quarter of the general fund, still staring back at our legislators. School Districts are in the process of negotiating pay reductions with teachers, and, shock and horror, there is even talk of reducing administrators salaries, so you know things must be bad!
It is important for us to us to rapidly move, like the five stages of grief, through denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally to acceptance of these new realities. Current events form future trends. Many adult schools have had budgets severely slashed. Even Berkeley Adult School, with such an excellent advocate as outgoing Principal, Margaret Kirkpatrick, has had massive reductions in their budget.
I have accepted a second year as your Southern Section President as approved at our last Section Board meeting held in Temecula on May 30th. What do I have to offer you in this coming crisis year? Information, insights, updates, and a little inspiration will be my goal for all in adult education along with our core mission of advocating on behalf of adult eduction, awards and recognition, and professional development. Regular postings on this this blog will be made. Old entries from last year have been deleted. This is a new year and a new start.
I very much encourage your comments, feedback, information, and updates from your school and district. Let's make this blog a place to share in the Southern Section and indeed throughout the whole state as we hold on to our hats and ride through this hurricane year.
I am off next week to the State Board Meeting in Sacramento on the 11th and will bring back news our Section Meeting to be held on Saturday, July 18th. I spent a hot Monday afternoon scouring Temecula for a new venue for our section meeting which will be announced soon. It was quite a shock to find that our longtime meeting place of Mexico Chicquitos Restaurant had shut down. Another casualty of the recession and indicator that things are not the same, I reflected!
My Very Best Regards
Enjoy the burgers and fireworks today.
I will be posting again soon.
Your Southern Section President, 2009-2010
Brian Head
Escondido Adult School
bhead@escondido.k12.ca.us
