Mrs. Valentino held two budget meetings last week to inform
parents of what to expect in terms of budget cuts, and steps we can take to
help. Here is a recap in case you
missed it. The good the bad and
the ugly:
The Good:
- Class size remains the same – 24:1 in K-3 and 38:1 in 4-6
- Personnel allocations will remain the same – for Mt. Washington it means we keep all of our teaching positions, clerks, administrators, nurse and psychologist
The Bad:
- The district will no longer fund After School Supervision
- VAPA (Visual and Performing Arts Program) will also be cut
- There is no money for GATE funding (the GATE program will continue)
- Teacher Professional Development funding is also cut
The Ugly:
- Total allocations to Mt. Washington for school year 2011-2012 was $133,101 out of which the school paid for Teacher’s Aids, Library Aid, Computer Lab Aid (3hrs/day), Drama and Dance, Intervention, Part of Recess and Lunch Supervision, Accelerated Reader and Math, Family Nights, Substitute teachers for professional development days and for IEP and SST meetings, Copier contract and instructional materials.
- The total allocation for school year 2012 to 2013 has been cut down to $23,663 – that’s a difference of $109,438.
- The news gets even uglier when we look at our budget and realize that many of the services went up in cost by several thousand dollars in some cases. Please click here for a detailed accounting of allocations for both school years.
- Mt.Washington Elementary became a distinguished school based on many of the programs that are being threatened for cuts in the coming school year. To view the budget and to see how our programs were funded for this year please click here. You will see that to maintain all of the programs that our children benefited from this year will cost $220,461 next year. The same programs cost our school $146,540 this year. That’s a difference of $73,921!
Why the
drastic cuts to our budget you might ask?
Federal
cuts:
- Ending of stimulus and elimination of NCLB (no child left behind) funds
State cuts:
- Lack of federal funding
- Lack of revenues generated
District:
- Accumulation of debt/lack of reimbursement
- Funding New Initiatives such as the early start calendar which will cost the district approximately $2 million, added new administrative positions to pilot a new teacher evaluation system
What you can
do to help:
- Complete the Budget Priorities Survey
- Write to our district representative and to our Superintended and request that the district return money to schools, hold off on costly initiatives, distribute non Title I funding to schools per capita, rather than schools qualifying as a 50% Title I student population.
Superintendent
John Deasy - Office of Superintendent
333 S. Beaudry Ave. 24th
floor
Los Angeles, CA 90017
Phone: 213/241-7000
Fax: 213/241-8442
Email: superintendent@lausd.net
Bennett
Kayser – our district board representative
333
S. Beaudry Ave. 24th floor
Los Angeles, CA 90017
Phone: 213/241-6383
Fax: 213/241-8467
Email: bennett.kayser@lausd.net
- Make a direct donation to the school or to our PTA by clicking here
- Support our up coming fundraisers
Next year’s
budget is looking pretty bleak for our wonderful little school, BUT our
children will still have the same amazing teachers, class sizes did not
increase, collectively we raised close to $40,000 so far through our PTA and
the FOMWS Auction was a success on Friday night. We the parents will continue to step up and make sure that
our children will have what they need to maintain the quality education that
they receive here at Mt. Washington.
This is the school after all, where they are “Dreaming the Impossible
and Making It Happen”
