Shoreline’s administrators won county approval for this year’s budget, but they are continuing to seek out possible reductions to eliminate structural deficit spending.
Last Wednesday, the Marin County Office of Education gave their approval to a revised budget that contained $1.39 million savings based on 16 layoff notices the board of trustees authorized in two September resolutions.
With those cuts—or other reductions in staffing that administrators hope to achieve through retirements and attrition—Shoreline’s budget will have nearly $940,000 saved in its reserves by the end of the 2016-17 school year, far improved from the $1.13 million deficit that drew the county’s attention and put them at risk of a takeover by outside fiscal appointees.
But at the end of the letter, after the good news that Shoreline appeared on track, Mary Jane Burke, the county superintendent of schools, and Terena Mares, the deputy superintendent for business services, sounded a note of warning: “Of note is that even after these expenditure reductions, the District is still deficit spending by approximately $1 million in 2016-17,” they wrote, adding emphasis with red ink for the dollar figure. “If not corrected the District will continue to exhaust its remaining reserves. Consequently, it is highly recommended that the District continue to work on correcting its long term remaining structural deficit.”
Employee health benefits—worth one-fifth of the district’s total budget—loom large for the district administrators as a line item where substantial savings are possible. In a brief and mostly vague let- ter on Sept. 18 (submitted too late for discussion at last month’s two meetings) that outlined the district’s proposal at the start of negotiations with the teachers union, Superintendent Tom Stubbs indicated that the administration hoped to “roll the contract over unchanged” for another school year, with one major exception: “cost-containment options” for the teachers’ health and welfare benefits.
“The District has an interest in working with the [Shoreline Education Association, the teachers union] in a collaborative way in exploring cost-containment options in addressing shared participation of increasing health and welfare premium costs,” Mr. Stubbs wrote. He did not respond to emails this week seeking clarification.
Staff are planning to address the item when it is presented at tonight’s 6 p.m. regular meeting at West Marin School, but union representatives have indicated that drastic reductions to teachers’ health ben-efits would be misguided, equivalent to a pay cut that would harm current employees and drive away strong potential candidates.
They argued that teachers made significant concessions on the question of health benefits during the last fiscal crisis, when edu- cators accepted a lower coverage plan and added a provision to their contract capping the district’s costs, and that the costs align with districts of comparable size.
Many employees also believe that Chief Business Official Susan Skipp has overestimated healthcare and other expenses in her multiyear budgeting. For the two coming years, she has budgeted a 12 percent increase in the costs of health and welfare benefits annually, as well as five percent jumps in dental and vision coverage. For the past few years, the rates have increased by 16.40 percent, zero percent, 4.67 percent and 9.98 percent; each year, employee benefits as a whole have increased by 10.25 percent, 4.91 percent, 7.14 percent.
“None of the health providers provide information as to what increase to use for projections,” Ms. Skipp said in an email. “The projections are determined by looking at historical increases and making an educated guess.”
After coming under fire from parents and students, the board members’ health benefits will also be up for discussion and possible action tonight.