Reacting to anticipated 10% cuts in funding from the state and six years of declining enrollment, the VC-Pauma school board voted Wednesday night to close the upper elementary school at the end of this school year.
A combination of cost-cutting measures could save as much as $2.132 million this year.
The board also announced the retirement of Ken Clark as assistant superintendent, and the promotion of current Pauma School Principal Mary Gorsuch to replace him.
Clark has been with the district since 1999, when he arrived to be the second principal of Valley Center High School. In July of 2002, he became the director of curriculum. He moved to be assistant superintendent in January of 2007.
“I would like to say how important Ken has been to the District. Your skills and talents have truly been invaluable. …We really appreciate you,” said Dr. Obermeyer.
Taking Mrs. Gorsuch’s place at the Pauma School will be Ann Staffieri, the current principal at the upper school.
The board voted 5–0 to close the upper school.
It voted 4–1 to make the staff changes. Trustee Doug Dechairo voted no. He felt that this item should have been discussed in closed session since it was such a vital subject.
However, board President Lori Johnson said that it had previously been discussed at a closed session.
“I believe we did discuss this and you were there,” she said.
“I don’t think we did,” he insisted. “We never really had a discussion where we and Lou sat down and talked about this.”
Mrs. Johnson was backed up by trustees Wendy Zeugschmidt and Don Martin. However, Dr. Dechairo insisted that it had not, so he voted no.
No minutes are taken during closed sessions. They are also not taped.
The board is holding a series of special meetings to deal with the funding crisis.
At the next special meeting this Wednesday, March 5, the board will vote to lay off ten teachers. Since tenured teachers cannot be laid off, the teachers will be the newest ones added to the staff.
Supt. Lou Obermeyer told The Roadrunner: “We have fabulous teachers in our district and we don’t want to lose any of them due to layoffs.
“Teachers that are permanent status have reemployement rights and are placed on a 39 month reemployement list. Probationary teachers are placed on a 24-month reemployement list. We know that we are fortunate to have quality teachers and employees and we don’t want to have to let any of them go,” she said.
Layoffs and school closures are happening or being discussed at several school districts in the county.
Fallbrook Union High School will be laying off 12 employees. Both Escondido school districts are discussing layoffs. Oceanside Unified is discussing layoffs and closing two schools.
Mary Gorsuch
The newly designated assistant superintendent, Mary Gorsuch, has been with the district since 1991. She was on loan to the San Diego County Office of Education for two years from 1999 - 2001 as the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA) Director in North Inland San Diego County.
After starting up new teacher support programs for 12 very diverse school districts from Ramona to San Marcos to Borrego Springs, she returned to Valley Center as Assistant Principal at the Upper Elementary for one year and then on to Pauma and Palomar Mountain Schools as principal for the past six years.
Both her administrative credential and masters in educational leadership are from CSUSM. Former Valley Center Union School District Supt. Harry Weinberg was her instructor in those programs.
Mrs. Gorsuch has a business background prior to teaching, working for Citicorp, Gibraltar Savings and others in financial/operations analysis, information systems and project management. Much of her work revolved around leading teams of professionals through major transitions, moving corporate locations or transitioning to new information systems.
She lives in Escondido with her husband Scott and their two miniature dachshunds.
Their two daughters are grown now, both college graduates “who got a great educational foundation in the Valley Center schools,” according to their proud mom.
Retirement Security
During the meeting the board heard from classified employees who want the district board to reconsider its position on capping their salary increases at 22 years (compared to 29 years for teachers) and capping their retirement medical benefits at $6,000.
Speakers included Kim Queen, Rosie Wahlrab, Beatriz Ruiz, Jackie Garcia and Gale Thompson.
Mrs. Queen, who has worked for the district for 22 years, including several years as the superintendent’s secretary, said that she had formerly been proud to work for a district “that had no second class citizens,” and treated all employees the same.
“Our retirement medical is an important part of our employment and we need them to be maintained. We can’t afford to pay them out of pocket,” she said.
She said she was concerned that benefits would be capped at $6,000 and asked, “Does that mean we should cap the work that we do?”
Several pages of petitions signed by the classified employees were also presented to the board.
Beatriz Ruiz, who has been with the district for 20 years, said she sees herself working for another ten to 15 years and feels that she won’t be able to retire because her salary won’t keep pace.
Thompson said, “to impose a cap on $6,000 on future employees makes as much sense as the governor cutting eduction. How much lower can we go?”
The Budget
Pam Moe presented another update on the budget.
It makes the following assumptions. Note: COLA is cost of living adjustment and ADA average daily attendance and is the amount the state pays for each student. The Deficit Factor is an on-going liability to the district until it is reinstated into the Revenue Limit Calculation.
Fiscal Year 2008/09
COLA 4.94%
Deficit Factor 6.99%
Funded COLA 2.40%
Categorical Funding -6.50%
K-12 Enrollment 4,289.00
K-12 ADA 4,031.66
Funded ADA 4,153.86
Base Revenue Limit $6,063.09.
FY 2009/10
Projected COLA 3.00%
Deficit Factor 6.99%
Funded COLA 3.00%
Categorical Funding/ unknown
K-12 Enrollment 4,137.00
K-12 ADA 3,888.78
Funded ADA 4,031.66 Base Revenue Limit $6,223.80
Mrs. Moe noted that the base revenue limit will fall to $6,063 per student for this fiscal year from $6,223.09 this year, before climbing back to $6,223.80 next year.
Possible savings of $2,132,000 may be realized by the following:
• The reduction of one principal and one adult school administrator (saving $220,000); the reduction of 11.4 temp teachers, 4.5 retires and 10 layoffs (saving $1.5 million); the reduction in the classified work force of one secretary who is retiring, one health clerk, whose position has become vacant, three custodians and one custodial supervisor, whose position has become vacant (saving $322,000).
• Decreases in the operating budget by the closing of Palomar Mountain School ($22,000); the closing of the upper elementary school ($30,000) and the adoption by the transportation department of bio-diesel fuel ($30,000).
Even with these cost cutting measures Moe anticipates eating into the reserves for the next few years.
Projected Deficit Spending
2007/08 $1,822,335
2008/09 $823,888
2009/10 $831,893
Mrs. Moe anticipates ending the 2007/08 FY with $ 3,918,211; with $2,779,561 the following year and $1,947,669 in 2009/10.
When John and Julie Ljubenkov’s house burned down in last October’s wildfires, they had no idea what was ahead of them.
With insurance, they thought it wouldn’t be too difficult to rebuild since they had a modular home and those are easy to order and get rebuilt and delivered to your property within weeks.
Their previous home had taken about four months to build and install. But, they had no idea the insurance company, Foremost, a subsidiary of Farmers, would not provide enough money to replace their home since that’s what the policy claimed it would do.
Upon discovering this, their friends in the Los Angeles area, where both grew up, came together to offer a whale watching trip to raise funds for the couple. The whale watching trip will go towards money to help them get started rebuilding.
So far no progress, except debris removal of the burnt home, has been made on rebuilding. The Ljubenkovs have contractors lined up and a home they want to buy locally, but without the money to cover the costs, and the insurance running out on their rented apartment in Oceanside, things are getting scary.
When the mortgage on a burned up house AND the rent come due in May (this is the last of their living expenses given to them by Farmers) they are afraid they may become homeless.
John is a long time resident of North County. For the past 13 years he and his wife have been living in Pauma Valley on the flanks of Palomar Mountain near the La Jolla Indian Reservation.
“The fire started about one mile away on the Reservation,” says John. “We woke up about 3:50 in the morning and left ten minutes later as the flames surrounded our home on three sides.” There was no reverse 911 call or no evacuation by authorities. The Ljubenkovs along with their neighbors, four families, all escaped with their lives and little else.
John works as a marine biologist. He is an independent contractor and identifies small marine animals using a microscope and a large library of scientific literature. He has 30 years of experience working with sea anemones, jelly fishes, and lots of sea animals like clams and scallops. He is a published taxonomist (namer of newly discovered animals) and has contracts with local governments including Orange County Sanitation Districts and local environmental companies such as Weston Solutions.
John’s wife, Julie, better known to her students as Ms. Julie or Julie Schneider is a working artist and art teacher. She teaches watercolor, drawing and mosaics through the City of Escondido, Mira Costa College in Oceanside and University of California at San Diego.
She has recently taken on more teaching jobs to help fund rebuilding. She will be teaching also through the city of Vista and the city of Carlsbad where she will be offering classes in both Art and Mosaics.
As an artist, Julie specializes in the same areas, watercolor and mosaics. She was getting for a big exhibition to take place in November last year, but the fires burned up all her new work, and all of her old work.
“Having my art burn is like having half your paycheck burn up for the next several years.” Julie explains.
Due to the burning down of her art studio, and the loads of paper work, phone calls, and email associated with raising money, fighting the insurance company, and documenting their losses, she has taken a leave of absence from creating art to concentrate on rebuilding their lives.
“It could be years before I can get back to living normally,” she says. Images of her art can be seen at the Society of American Mosaic’s Artist Web site or at the Southern California Botanical Artist’s Guild of Southern California.
“We have tried to get help from FEMA, but we don’t qualify. We are now trying to get a federal disaster assistance loan, but they are saying we don’t have a high enough income,” says Julie. The couple is working to remedy the situation by taking on more employment. They are hoping in a few weeks, or months, with a little help from their friends, to start the rebuilding process.
The whale watching trip is being donated by John Olguin and Harbor Breeze Cruises in Long Beach. John Olguin is the world famous director emeritus of the Los Angeles Cabrillo Museum and Aquarium. He is also founder of the American Cetacean Society and is affectionately called the “Father of Whale Watching” since he was one of the first people to ever conduct whale watching trips. For more information on John see the American Cetacean Society Web site. John’s fascinating knowledge of whales and friendly personality make his tours unforgettable.
Wednesday, 8:20 a.m. the Valley Center Fire Protection District firefighters were dispatched to a large truck fire in the area of Rolling Hills Drive in Valley Center.
A black column of smoke was visible throughout the Valley Center area as fire equipment responded to this call.
Firefighters found a large Escondido Disposal trash truck heavily involved in fire on a small grove roadway in the area of Rolling Hills Drive, according to George Lucia, VC fire marshal.
The fire was quickly contained to the truck and did not spread to the adjacent vegetation or grove areas.
Firefighters were also faced with a hazardous materials incident caused by the fire melting a large hydraulic oil reservoir on the trash truck, causing a spill in the area.
Firefighters were able to contain the spill along with extinguishing the fire preventing any environmental damage. The final clean-up of the contaminated soil will be handled by the truck owner through a licensed environmental clean up company.
The driver of the trash truck received minor burns to the area of his hands and was treated at the scene by paramedics and released. The trash truck was a total loss valued at $70,000 dollars.
The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Valley Center Fire Protection District and has been termed accidental caused by an electrical short circuit in the engine area of the truck.
Among the items that will be discussed at the March 10 VC planning group meeting will be:
According to Planning Group Chairman Oliver Smith, items that will be interesting and/or generate a bit of discussion at the group’s March 10 meeting include:
• Discussion and possible vote on concerns over hotel plan by Valley View Casino
• Parks and Rec plan for the 9.5 acres on southwest corner of Valley Center Road & Lilac Road.
• General Plan Update land use element discussion with vote on formal feedback to the county Dept. of Planning & Land Use
Coming up in the April meeting:
• Presentation/discussion of proposed Rite Aid store at southeast corner of Valley Center Road & Woods Valley Road.
General Plan Update
The County DPLU is studying the idea of separating the 22 community plans from the general plan that is currently being updated (and has been in the process of being updated for a decade).
Devan Muto, the DPLU chief in charge of the general plan update, told The Roadrunner this week that while the idea is being studied, that it has not yet been adopted formally.
Muto was unable to say where this idea originated.
“I wasn’t around when it was generated,” he said. “To be honest, I don’t know where it came from. It is one of the issues that needed to be resolved.”
There are pros and cons to having the community plans be adopted as part of the general plan, as they have been in the past.
“One of the cons is that then you can only update the community plans so often,” said Muto.
Another “con” is that there is so much detail in community plans that if there are minor inconsistencies they can threaten the internal consistency of the document itself.
On the plus side of having community plans separate from the general plan: “You have more flexibility to update it and provide more detail,” says Muto.
Muto insists that this is not a “done deal.”
“We want to engage stakeholders. We will eventually have an analysis and when we do we will present it to the community groups.”
Whether the various community plans will have the force of law, “remains to be seen,” says Muto. “That would be something we would talk to with the planning groups as well.”
This proposal will probably be formally brought to the planning groups 3-4 months from now, according to Muto.
“Right now I’m waiting for our consultant to get freed up and be able to address this. Then I will have them look into the process of updating the community plans,” said Muto.
Valley Center Planning Group Chairman Oliver Smith said that this issue will probably be brought up at Monday’s meeting.
“We don't like separating the community plan from the GP Update land use framework currently being discussed,” he commented.
“Making the community plan part of the framework provides the enforcement basis to assure future project alignment to the community plan. If they are separated, there is no apparent requirement to follow the community plan as long as the county general plan is followed.”
Smith added, “Valley Center has a community plan and you can read it on the VCCPG Web site www.vccpg.org>www.vccpg.org.
“It is somewhat dated as it was last updated for the previous General Plan update process around 2002, but it does exist and is the result of a major effort by a number of individuals dedicated to keeping Valley Center the special place that we all have come to enjoy.”
Smith noted that many other planning group areas in the county do not have formal community plans at all.
“At this point, it appears as if the County were to have all of the planning groups develop their community plans now, it would put a significant delay in the GP Update process.
“Unfortunately for all of us, the process has already had significant delays and a key goal of the new DPLU GP Update team is to drive the GP update process to completion in a timely and efficient manner. The challenge to both DPLU and the GP Update Steering Committee (made up of the various planning groups) is how to make the two conflicting goals successful at the same time,” said Smith.
Valley Center Little League t-ball players recite the Pledge of Allegiance before opening day’s first game.
VC resident Jon Vick captured this early spring vista for us this week on Cole Grade Road.
The Valley Roadrunner
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