Budget Solutions for Cave Creek Unified CCUSD

We have no idea what is going on with the 10-11 budget review committee (only two meetings?) but we were surprised that the governing board approved a 1.6% pay increases and the employee contracts before any review from that committee was complete and presented to the board.  Another failed committee or were the results just hidden from the public?

Parents for Super Schools has put out a call for budget ideas here.

Save Our Schools - Lower Our Taxes Challenge

We present our suggestions here.

 

1. Consolidate all the schools into 2 campuses. STMS and HTES in the south. DAMS, BMES, old BMES, and CSHS in the north.  Close three schools,DWES, DSES, and LMES, and make all schools K-8 except Cactus Shadows. Use old BMES to ease overcrowding at the HS or use it for 7-9. Operate the south and north schools as one, for example HTES and STMS could act as one campus and allocate room accordingly (maybe HTES is the lower school K-4 and STMS is an upper school 5-8), same with BMES and DAMS. This is likely a $1.2M savings and not one teacher needs to get laid off and we would also realize some transportation savings.
2. Raise class sizes by 4 at K-8 level but to mitigate this implement an ability grouping in each grade level.  The higher ability groups would have more students in them, the lower levels less students. Just as a simple example students would be grouped into the following class sizes: Honors 40 per class. Highly performing 36 per class. Performing 30 per class. Under performing 28 per class.  Have parents sign a form understanding that to be in the honors track, you accept a higher student teacher ratio.
3. Expand the walk zone (currently 1 mile) to 2 miles. There are some bus routes at DWES that drop kids off 1000 feet from the school. Why!  The closure of 3 schools may mitigate some of this.  Savings unknown but > than 0.
4. Consolidate all school records information at the district office.  Certainly that spiffy new school management system we bought can allow for one or two people to manage all the schools from a central location.  We don't need a records secretary (currently 7 or 8 FTEs) at each of the schools for such a small district. Cut this to 3, 1.5 for K-8 and 1.5 for the HS and a savings of $200,000.
5. Fund a full time volunteer coordinator position. This person will be solely responsible for creating a database of parents who are more than willing to step up and help the schools in this time of need.  If a teacher needs some help, they call the volunteer coordinator who will send out an email blast asking for volunteers. Principal needs some temporary help, the volunteer coordinator could find a volunteer instead of paying a temp or substitute.
6. Remove all car allowances.  If someone needs to travel between schools, the district maintains a fleet of vehicles that can be used for this purpose. Since the state reimburses us for every mile driven we could even make money by doing this.  Savings at least $40,000.
7. Raise deductibles and premiums for employee family members and eliminate paying 100% of the cost of health care for administrator’s family members.
8. Raise fees for groups using district fields and gyms to fully cover the utility usage. Who is paying the electricity costs for the lights that are on every evening at the district ball fields, when no one is using them?  Just because some organization donated the lights, does not we we are obliged to pay for the electricity to run them.
9. Discontinue paying fees to associations.  AZSBA, AASBO, NSBA, etc. will still continue to advocate for schools even if our district is not paying them.
10. Cut all day kindergarten.  Sorry there is no proof that adding another 120 minutes of instruction (when you subtract for lunch, another recess, nap time, etc.) is worth the cost. These funds could be put to a much more productive use.
11. Eliminate IB.  Sorry but colleges do not give IB as much respect as AP.  And since CCUSD made the decision not to expand the program at the elementary and middle schools (too expense they said!) running both these programs is a waste of resources.
12. The biggest suggestion of all. Implement a program and curriculum that delivers achievement and sets the highest of expectations.  Dear CCUSD, your hodgepodge of world languages (costs $300,000), spotty misuse of Core Knowledge, selections of mediocre math textbooks, use of project based learning, and insistence on differentiated instruction, may make your ed school professors proud, but they are not helping our students achieve or complete in Arizona much less the world. Remember you caused some of our schools to not even meet the state’s low threshold of excelling.  What have you done about it?  We see the your fantastic Blue Ribbon BluePrint Strategic 21st Century Committee has yet to present a plan to plan, and the end of the school year is upon us.