Important Message from Site Council & Local School Committee

Dear Fellow Bonny Slope Parents-

You may or may not be aware of the severe budget crisis that the Beaverton School District is facing for the 2009-2010 school year. While we realize that school funding is one of many problems all of us are facing right now, we hope that you will take a moment to read this e-mail so that you can hopefully understand the magnitude of the situation.

The district is expecting to have to cut anywhere between $25 and $50 million out of an approximately $315 million general fund. That’s anywhere from 8% to 15% of the overall budget. Unfortunately, cutting back on utility and supply costs can onlymake a small dent in a gap that big. At this point, the district is considering all options when it comes to cost reductions. To put it in perspective, the last time that the district was facing”serious” budget cuts and were dangerously close to eliminating music and/or PE programs, the budget shortfall was about $6 million. Stop for a moment and think about how deep they will have to cut in order to eliminate even the minimum $25 million. If they have to cut $50 million- we can’t even imagine the cuts that will be made. At
this point no specific decisions on cuts have been made.

Please refer to the followinglinks for specific budget information:

http://www.beaverton.k12.or.us/home/departments/business-services/district-annual-budget/

http://www.openbooksproject.org/

The reality is that personnel salaries account for approximately 85 percent of the overall budget. One of the main options that is up for consideration is a reduction in classroom teachers. If this happens, staff will be cut based solely on hire date within the Beaverton district. Within BSE, ten out of our seventeen classroom teachers are what are referred to as “probationary one” teachers and will be the first teachers at risk for losing their jobs. Yes, its hard to even imagine, but that is the reality we are facing.

So what can we do? At Bonny Slope we’ve already experienced large class sizes, but because of our stellar teaching staff and dedicated parent volunteers, I think its safe to say that most of us have been extremely pleased with the quality of our child’s experience this past year. The elimination of classroom teachers will result in large classroom sizes across the district. At the middle school/high school level, an increase in the average number to 40 students per class was mentioned at the last budget meeting. We have to lobby for a reduction anywhere other than classroom teachers. The administration has made it known that they want public input on where to place the budget priorities and we need our voices to be heard. We urge you to learn more about this situation for yourself and then ACT and contact your school board members- urging them not to cut classroom teachers and preserve manageable classroom sizes. These decisions will be made within the next 30 days, and layoff notices are expected to go out the last week in May, so we need to act quickly.

Their e-mail addresses are as follows:

Karen_Cunningham@beavton.k12.or.us
Tom_Quillin@beavton.k12.or.us
Mary_VanderWeele@beavton.k12.or.us
Sarah_Smith@beavton.k12.or.us
Craig_Irwin@beavton.k12.or.us
Jeff_Hicks@beavton.k12.or.us

You may want to include the superintendent,

Jerome_Colonna@beavton.k12.or.us

Also, there are two very important meetings that you may attend:

School Board Business Meeting- Monday, April 6th @ 6:30pm
Central Administration Center
16550 SW Merlo Road

You may ask questions and voice your opinion at the Superintendent’s Listening Session on Thurs. 4/16 from 7 to 8:30pm
Health and Science School
18640 NW Walker Road

Budget Committee Meeting
Monday, April 28th at 7pm
Central Administration Center
16550 SW Merlo Road

Regards,

Bill Hagerup- BSE Local School Committee
bill@hagerupfamily.com
Sara Deboy- BSE Site Council
sdeboy@iname.com

Rocky Scales- BSE Local School Committee
rocky.scales@gmail.com

Elaine Underwood- BSE Site Council
laineyunderwood@verizon.net

Tracy Wenckus- BSE Local School Committee
twenckus@portlandopera.org