Statistics wrote on Feb 22, 2008 5:31 AM:From what i understand the number of parents participating in creating the recomendation list was around 250. So, that means there wre about 1250 people who particpated in the list creation. Therefore, Cutting administrators was recommended by 15.2%, early retirment was recommended by 14.64%, and cutting LMB was recommended by 12.8%. For all those bloggers who have been hitting so hard against LMB it looks like 81.2% of the people polled must support LMB, so maybe you need to look some place else for your cuts. Like opening of a school we really don't need and that will only serve 0.869% of the student population. LMB actually serves more students than the Dual Magnet High Schools will, and student for student it looks as though it would cost about the same.

Vista Parent wrote on Feb 22, 2008 5:53 AM:Some people are so short sighted, and so elitest they would actually demand that a school, that will only serve 200 students, open early even though said school will have no utilites, no cafeteria, no library, no Gym, no fields, and serious safety problems concerning the accessability. Do you realize that if VUSD does opne this school in Fall with the facilites in the condidtions currently anticipated VUSD could face a law suite for violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act? The facilites wont meet the state or federal standards for accessability and accomodations, so exactly who are these 200 students that are going to be served and from what group will they come? Go ahead, push for an early opening of a school that is not ready and see just how poorly it performs! Guess it would fit right in with the rest of the failures seen at VUSD schools!

Reality comes to VUSD wrote on Feb 22, 2008 6:08 AM:You don't come across a $10-$12 million shortfall without knowing in advance that you may not be on fiscally sound ground. The school district, and these board members in particular, knew the costs of opening the "magnet schools" on death road 76 and Melrose. They knew that they would have to increase classroom sizes, cut down on programs that would in turn lead to a higher achieve/dropout rate. Jaka lead the charge. I hope the school board finally comes to its senses and decides to spend the money on the children, versus a pipe dream!

Logic wrote on Feb 22, 2008 7:21 AM:I wonder if the layoffs of three psychologists and two speech therapists will be a wise move? This may be a cut that the VUSD cannot afford to make. Maybe they should look into cutting more extra administration positions at the headquarters.

I would defiantly get a second opinion on these cuts I mentioned this mistake could actually end up costing them more than they bargained for.

Shelley12 wrote on Feb 22, 2008 8:00 AM:133 targeted for layoff and I thought they said they wanted to keep the layoffs out of the classrooms. How is laying off 120 teachers doing that?
In the list of layoffs I do not see anything about laying off at the admin level.
How about the high paid new positions of people from Dr Bales previous school district? They make a higher salary and benefit package than the teachers or support staff. I am sure there are spots that could be cut and not in the class.
Laying off the Director of Special Ed and speech therapists will just leave an opening for the district to fall into non compliance of IEP's and open the door for parents to sue the district. That will cost more in the long run.
As for opening a school that will serve 200 kids let it wait. That 1 million plus dollars would be better served in the classrooms that are already up and running.
As for Linda Mood Bell the district has spent millions of dollars on this program, are you telling me this is the only program to teach kids how to read?
There are lots of places to cut the fat but not in the classroom.
How about a campaign (letters, phone calls emails etc.) to the Gov. not to make education the scape goat for his bad leadership. His kids go to private school mine donot and they need the teachers in the classroom.

Vista resident wrote on Feb 22, 2008 8:52 AM:I agree with Shelley12, We need the teachers for our students, but the admin can cut their budget. This is so out of control. the high pay people are cutting the jobs of the ones who actually DO THE WORK. GET REAL.

michael92084 wrote on Feb 22, 2008 9:55 AM:Bales and Gecewicz with their multi-million dollar Linda Mood Bell program should be removed. Good teachers, and involved parent, teach kids to read, not expensive programs and fancy dog and pony shows in oversized class rooms. Show us the data on Linda Mood Bell? That’s right, I didn’t think so. Instead all we hear is too early. Does Bales have a financial stake in that crazy over priced program?

beati wrote on Feb 22, 2008 10:05 AM:What do you all expect when unions are in control of the money? It goes to the unions,and administrators who support the unions.There is plenty of money to teach kids but then you have all these pet programs and new administrative buildings and salaries that suck it up.
Privatise the school system or home school. Public school is worthless.

Observer wrote on Feb 22, 2008 11:23 AM:Apparently Michael92084 has not been attending the school board meetings. More than once data has been given to show the improvement made with the programs Dr. Bales has employed. Scores moved upward and one school came off sanction. While these results aren't the complete solution to VUSD's problems it surely is a start; something that has not happened in ten years in the past. Several attendees at board meetings complain too many tests are given the students but if they weren't performed, those who criticize the programs would be the first to voice, "There's no data". How does one satisfy these divergent opinions? I haven't the answer; perhaps those who complain have one.

Appalled at the cuts wrote on Feb 22, 2008 12:15 PM:Depending on which measures are used, California's gross domestic product ranks it as the 7th, 8th, or 10th largest economy in the WORLD, based on 2005 data. Yet this state cannot manage to fund public education. The problem is the tax structure that allows the super-rich to skate and corporations to dodge entirely by setting up bogus headquarters off shore. These elites believe that they are entitled to deny education to the masses, yet often they are the same who preach to us about "family values". Don't vote for these blood-suckers and boot them out of office.

Shelley12 wrote on Feb 22, 2008 12:19 PM:Observer correct me if I am wrong but Linda Mood Bell,Dr Bales reading program was implemented this past summer during summer school. So how can you say that the scores have moved up and one school was taken off of sanction with her programs when the tests for this year have not been given yet? Aren't they done in the Spring?
If the scores went up and a school was taken off of sanction it was not due to her programs but under the old program.

Bill wrote on Feb 22, 2008 12:43 PM:Start the layoff with Bales first!

Data wrote on Feb 22, 2008 12:57 PM:How about this data taken right off the California State Department of Education website. Vista superintendent makes about the same amount as the superintendent of San Diego Unified, which is about $260,000 a year. Vista's sup. has a $1000 dollar car allowance each month, San Diego's has none. San Diego city employs 7,416 teachers, Vista employs 1,335. San Diego City schools has 131,034 students. Vista has 25,945 students. In San Diego Unified $1.89 is taken from each students education to pay the superintendents salary. In Vista it is $8.51. Why is Vista paying the same administrative salaries for a district that is 5 times smaller to manage than San Diego Unified. There is an administrator in VUSD for every 14 teachers. Does anyone see where Vista might cut expenses so children are not affected?

I agree with beati wrote on Feb 22, 2008 2:01 PM:Having taught as a substitute in the VUSD, I have seen the incredible waste perpetrated by the "union mentality" of the public school system. Whatever happened to the Three R's? Whatever happened to plain old academia? The special programs, IEP, ESL, Mainstreaming, Least Restrictive Environment, Gay Straight Alliance, MEChA and on and on and on and on have only produced a declining educational experience for EVERY child. To say nothing of the fact that they cut buses, lockers, after school sports, PE, music and art in the Elementary schools and then whine about MORE special programs to fight obesity and gang violence in the schools. WHAT is wrong with this picture? Have one or two special needs schools in each district that can be fully staffed, cut ridiculous socialization programs from the realm of academia and actually impose rules and regulations to be adhered to in ALL schools. Look to high performing districts and emulate their successes. VUSD and other pandering, non performing districts have failed generations of students, and have gotten VERY well paid for it.

Talk Talk Talk wrote on Feb 22, 2008 2:21 PM:Okay Folks, we all agree what about what should be done in Vista to correct the budget issues but where does talking on the internet get us? What do we need to do to get the changes made?
As a very concerned citizen I honestly want to the answer. How can we band together and clean this mess up?

To Shelly12 wrote on Feb 22, 2008 3:54 PM:LMB has been here for almost 2 years. Where have you been?

To Talk Talk Talk wrote on Feb 22, 2008 4:02 PM:Well, there is an election in November 2008. Time to remove teh insider Union Backed Board Members, return the School District to local Citizen control, and then start cleaning house of all those excesses that don't directly aid in educating students. Run the district like a Business where performance is demanded and measured, and those who don't measure up are let go. Chhildren want to learn! So, let us teach them. Most teachers want to teach, so let them teach! Stop playing all these politically correct games and simply teache these kids the basics and go from there. No more social programming, no more catering to special interests and classes taught in foreign languages (unless it is a high school foreing language class). You want change? Get invovled and make the changes! Ther are plenty who are willing to talk about change, but few who will take the time to do what is needed to implement that change. Ther are those bloggin here who are right that we don't need so many administrators. But we also can do a whole lot better in the classrooms as well. And some of that will take changing the way we do business in our Public Schools. Sacramento and the CTA are running our schools into the ground. So, we need real Leaders willing to tell the Sacramento elites and the CTA to Get Lost! Are you up for the battles?

Coastal Eddy wrote on Feb 22, 2008 4:06 PM:How about trying a "user fee"? Say $200 per student. There would be no need for cuts.

To Coastal Eddy wrote on Feb 22, 2008 4:39 PM:how about simply giving every parent the money that should have been used by the district to educate their child. Provide it in the form of a voucher that can only be used at a school and only for educating their child. The teachers and the best of the administrators could very easily get together and set up many of these schools and run them as simi-private or charter schools. I'll bet these schools would all run far more efficiently and be far more effective than any of the current public schools! ... There I go being practical again. But of course we know the Union would NEVER agree to vouchers! Where would the Union Power Borkers get all their money? No more union dues from all those union teachers. And no more ability to buy politicians and run the state into the ground by sucking all the funds from the classroom to create all these many social programs. Guess it will never work: just aren't enough citizens out there with backbones anymore! No body willing to tell the Unions and Politicians to get out of our schools and stop playing games with our children and our Country's future.

Road Kill wrote on Feb 22, 2008 7:30 PM:
Just wait till they open those "magnet" schools two years from now and all our kids get creamed by trucks while attempting to cross the 76. You think there's a budget crisis now, once those lawsuits hit for safety neglogence we'll have real problems.

backbone wrote on Feb 22, 2008 11:20 PM:I agree with the comment to Coasal Eddy of 2/22 @ 4:39p.m. After attending last nights meeting until 11:00p.m., I think vouchers would be more constructive for educators, students and parents than the current VUSD board decisions. Given the seriousness of the budget cuts at hand, I witnessed self serving political intentions of most board members (with the exception of Mrs. Herera). It appeared the district administrators came with a preplanned agenda that did not favor students and education - instead favored their jobs. The current VUSD administration is driving away some of the best teachers and principals. After the meeting, I talked with my family about moving to another school district. The outlook for VUSD is poor and under the current divisive attitude of both the admisitration and VUSD board, there is little hope for a turnaround.

Irony wrote on Feb 22, 2008 11:43 PM:Why did the district build a brand new kitchen and remodle the administrative building, knowing that a financial crisis was coming?? Dr. B. does not need such a huge salary and a huge cell phone allowance!! The cuts should start with her.

I teach wrote on Feb 23, 2008 8:18 AM:Why haven't I heard anybody mentioning getting rid of "Ventures for Excellence" - the program that sets up the extremely controversial Teacherstyle Profile Builder - it is VERY costly, and serves absolutely no purpose other than to make hiring easier for HR - there are even indications it has been a miserable failure - a teacher at EACH school site in this district could be saved in exchange for this computerized hiring fiasco! Most of you parents are not even aware of this.

individual versus group interest wrote on Feb 23, 2008 8:41 AM:to "to coastal eddie" and "I agree with beati" - probably same person. It sounds like you're interested in serving the needs of yourelf and your children and are not really interested in helping all children, especially the ones that are not like you and may face different challenges. I laughed when you wrote about segregating one or two special needs schools and cutting "socialization programs". That reminds me of that scene in the movie Hairspray where they put the girl who was causing trouble into the special ed room where they had placed all the African American students. Maybe you would prefer to put all the English Learners, children with special needs, gay students and other students not like you in those two seperate special schools you've proposed.

again wrote on Feb 23, 2008 9:32 AM:again the wrong people are in charge. this is not about the kids, and until it is this type of thing won't change. Its greed and politics. The Vista school system is the joke of the county. If you want a future for your kid and want them educated in public schools you need to take charge. Demand change, and I mean demand. The school board gets its money from the state, if you kid is not in school the state won't send the money. Demand a child can read English to advance to 3rd grade etc. Or you can sit back and do nothing and this is what you get.

frustrated wrote on Feb 23, 2008 9:56 AM:They say LMB is working. Show me the proof. How many students are in the program? How many hours are spent out of the class? After this intense instruction how many are ready to return to regular classroom instruction? Is LMB graduating students from their program? My observation has been no!! Tell me the schools on the program and what has happened to that schools scores on the test. Prove that LMB is the thing that made the difference. They can't. We are serving a very small group of kids with a staff of 4 or 5 people at each school and the students are not passing the program and are having to repeat instruction sometimes multiple times. Is this really an improvement over classroom instruction. What else is that student missing while they are pulled for 90 min. a day. Some students who are strong in math are pulled during this instruction and then are behind in math because of lost instruction time. These students are actually getting further behind in many aspects of their academic career and making little or no progress in reading. Cutting teachers is not the answer, but investigating LMB to decide if it is doing what we are being told it does is a valid discussion during these times of budget cuts.

Are you forgetting? wrote on Feb 23, 2008 10:04 AM:Remember the previous Superintendent who took the Golden Parachute and left, promising $5,000 a year donation to VUSD? Short term memory loss, I guess. Dr. B is doing the best that she can to turn this district around and being stonewalled by people who don't like change (VTA) and it is sad that a fine lady who works so hard and never, ever says anything mean about another person is treated this way. You all should be supporting her and not picking at her like the bullies that you are. Man, I thought that this was about the children and not your own selfish gains! Start looking for a solution, oh I forgot this is VUSD and people aren't able to put aside their own elitist agenda's aside for the good of the children!

To Frustrated wrote on Feb 23, 2008 1:52 PM:To you and all those against LMB who keep saying "prove it" all I have to say is this" Prove to the rest of us that LMB isn't what caused the test scores to go up. And, Prove to us what did! All I keep hearing from everybody is that even though the test scores have gone up LMB is not worth the costs. But so far nobody on either side seems willing or able to show why tests scores improved last year, and why those schools that came off the sanctions list did so. We will again see further results next August. Will they go up or down, and either way, what was the cause. By the way, if you continue to fight against something, even something that can and is working, its success will be minimized. Buy-in and active participation in any program, no matter how good or bad will show better results than constant fighting against it. So, since this is about the children and their education you and everyone else owe it to the children to get behind something and give it a try. Currently LMB is in. Constantly battling against it will only end up costing the District more, and the children even more. So, if you are really about education you will drop you bickering about LMB, give it another year or two of SOLID support, and then if it has not performed you can easily kill it. But, only if you can provide solid proof that, 1. LMB has failed, and 2. that you have something with a solid record of success to replace it. Otherwise, all you are dooing by fighting this program is hurting the children you claim to be supporting! Now, PROVE ME WRONG!

frustrated wrote on Feb 23, 2008 6:39 PM:You obviously do not understand the program. Only the people hired to work the program have anything to do with the program. The teacher for it can't help and the teachers against it can't hurt. It is a program run by the program people. Also I did not say that I was against it. I think it has some good qualities. I said that we had to investigate the use of that money now and for the small group of students it is helping. We don't have the money. We can't afford to wait and see if it is working. I do know that many children (not all) are having to repeat the instruction, and that many are missing important classroom instruction. To me this says that we need to look more closely, that in this time of terrible cuts to our education institues that we need to look at the statistics we have right now. How many have been in the program? How many are able to pass? How much time is this taking away from other broad instruction? I don't know the answer, but the board owes it to the people of Vista to investigate these issues. I take offense that you attack when all I ask is that we investigate. Why are you unable to see that we have investigate everything at this juncture? When LMB is the second thing people mentioned that should be cut, then the board need to address that concern with investigation. If it is able to stand up to that investigation then fine!!

tht wrote on Feb 24, 2008 8:00 AM:Dear Michael92084,
Oh yes! She does have a rather large stake in LMB. She is one of the keynote speakers at a LMB conference in SoCal in the next month or so. Funny how the district doesn't mention that, or the fact that not every school who pulled themselves out of NCLB even had LMB at their site. I wonder how they did that?

To frustrated wrote on Feb 24, 2008 8:23 AM:If one can't read it really does not do them much good to be sitting in a classroom getting instruction on any subject. READING is what LMB is all about. So, if students are missing classroom time to attend personalized, intensive LMB instruction time they are not being hurt any more than they would if they were to be sitting in the classroom unable to follow the instruction due to their inability to read! Furthermore, if you have 25 students in your class and 2 of them are having trouble reading, and thus not keeping up on the subject, you will find that you must spend nearly half you time with these two students, as well as slowing down the pace for the rest of the class, just so these two students can keep up. Who is being hurt here? So, if these two students are out for a READING program, and end up being set back as a result, but also end up able to read, then the rest of the students have directly benefitted. By the way, from what I've seen LMB is designed to teach a select group of teachers who become Trainers. These Trainers then go on to teach other teachers until all teachers have the training. Students needing extra assistance are the only ones that are then taken out of their regular classroom instruction for intensive instruction. When these students return their teacher is able to support these students’ new learning techniques. But, it does take getting all the teachers at a school trained in the method, and ALL teachers supporting the program. So far, there has been too much arguing and fighting about the program and so the full benefit of this program (or any other under these circumstances) has been prevented from reaching its full potential (some teachers who have received the instruction refuse to use it because of the political pressure from those that are against it).
Now to answer your request to investigate. Investigate at what expense? Who should do the investigation? What would their instructions be? Can we be certain they don't have an agenda to find fault with or support the program (unbiased and objective)? Remember, the LMB program is being paid for using Title I funding. These funds are required by Federal Law to be used only for programs intended to aid low and underperforming students. Also, Title I funds are only provided to schools that are underperforming, and therefore you will find some Districts actually attempt to manipulate the numbers by redrawing boundaries, or transferring students, so as to spread their underperformers around just enough to have more schools qualify for Title I funds. NCLB was designed to actually require that the Title I funds be used for the purpose they were originally intended: helping underperforming students achieve equity in education. If a school fails to show improvement when receiving Title I funding they face the possibility of losing the funding all together. So, when people say NCLB is an unfunded requirement, they are forgetting that only Title I schools are impacted by NCLB, and they are already receiving the funds for which NCLB is now measuring. Yes, NCLB is nothing more than a method to measure the effectiveness of the programs being paid for by Title I funding. So, when you talk about using these funds for other programs instead of LMB you need to first bring to the table another program with solid evidence that it works better than LMB. Cutting LMB will NOT aid the current Budget problems in the least, as the Title I funds being used for LMB CAN'T be used for any General Operations budget items. So when only 16% of those polled are calling for LMB to be cut, and when less than 2% of parents and less than 25% of teachers and staff were polled, one has to wonder if those being polled were knowledgeable about what they were requesting be cut. Granted, cutting administration was the #1 item on the list, and that is where you should be focusing. Administrative costs at VUSD (and most other districts in CA) have skyrocketed over the past few decades. We can save large amounts by cutting Administrative costs. Oh yes, your investigation of the LMB program would be an Administrative Cost and you might want to consider that too.

Now are you even more frustrated about the many years of mismanagement at VUSD that put us into this mess in the first place?

To tht wrote on Feb 24, 2008 8:32 AM:Ken Noonan was a keynote speaker at many conferences concerning English Immersion. Yet, if you know the history of Noonan and English Immersion you'd know that he was strongly opposed to it. So much so that he decided to end all speculation by implementing English Immersion at Oceanside Unified to “Prove” it would not work! Well, as history shows us Noonan was converted from a non-believer to a strong supporter of English Immersion. So, if you really want to KILL LMB why not try implementing the full program across the District and see what happens. If it is such a bad program it will fail. On the other hand, if it is as good as some claim it will benefit the whole District. For now all we have is a bunch of people on both sides trying to make unfounded claims about this program. And the only ones being hurt by all this are the Students. Shame on ALL of you for your selfish desires and political grandstanding!

Samuel wrote on Feb 24, 2008 8:54 AM:I honestly do not understand the Dr. Bales bashers. Let me get this straight. LMB is holding a conference in the State and is featuring a Superintendent that has successfully used their program at least twice and you can’t understand why she would not be a featured speaker? Who else would they feature? By your way of thinking it would be appropriate that our previous Superintendent should explain how to retire with an inflated pension. Get real!

I teach wrote on Feb 24, 2008 10:57 AM:Once again, I repeat - why no discussion at all about getting rid of the "Ventures for Excellence" program - I will tell you why - it is utterly shouded in secrecy - tell me - if a program is doing anything for anyone - other than HR and the admin- it will be transparent - I totally understand the interest in LMB -by the way - it is actually LBLP (Lindamood Bell Learning Processes) ---- hello out there (respectfully ) the Ventures for Excellence SHOULD HAVE BEEN INCLUDED ON THE LIST OF THINGS TO DISCUSS - WHY WASNT IT???? Hello out there again, respectfully, it is costing the district and all it does is make HR lazy and pretend that it helps select more qualified teachers- when indeed it has excluded many experienced , fantastic teachers - VENTURES FOR EXCELLENCE - how quickly we forget????

Pretty amazed wrote on Feb 24, 2008 11:22 AM:Perhaps the Bales "frustration" is linked to her "slice and dice" handling of district employees - and from watching her be driven around by her dark haired son(who has no other job!!!) who escorts her everywhere within the district - and hangs out at all meetings, no matter how privledged the session = perhaps that seems a wee bit unprofessional??? - my tax dollars should not be helping Dr. Bales otherwise jobless 40 year old son!!!

To Pretty amazed wrote on Feb 24, 2008 12:45 PM:Her son is the owner of his own company and therefore does not cost the District anything. He has enough money and his company is doing well enough that he is able to come out here to CA to help support his mother who is constantly being attacked by certain individuals around here. I'd say that is about typical for most good sons: wanting to provide aid and comfort to their mothers, especially when their mother comes under attack. How dare you attack a woman who has come so far in her career! And how quickly you forget that Dr. Bales was brought in by an unanimous vote of the Board, which was and still is controlled by the Union supported members. I guess what you are saying is that the Union realized after the fact that they brought in someone with a brain who can and will think for themselves as opposes to simply being another puppet! But, I guess those who don't like Bales are simply trying to go after a woman who has achieved what many only dream of. You are so weak with your attacks against her that you now have to go after her son. You obviously have no factual data to prove she is not doing a good job, and so you bring in family members. Next I suppose you will be attempting to make some claim about her being single, or some other outlandish claim simply because you hate that fact that she is cleaning out the deadwood from VUSD and actually putting Children First! Can't have that now can we!

if LMB was worth it, teachers would support it wrote on Feb 24, 2008 1:06 PM:The teachers who are in VUSD want their children to succeed. There is plenty of publicity about test scores, and each teacher is held accountable. So, if these students were being helped by anything, the teachers would support it because it would also help them. It is not a reading program. It is not adopted by any state, and the district has a reading program already. It is an intervention for kids with a problem learning, it is not appropriate for kids who do not need MAJOR help, and it does NOT teach kids English. In the private sector it is successful one-on-one. That is what their research is based on. In the school setting, they do it 5 on 1. I have no problem with the program itself, I have heard from several people that it is good. But, it does not seem to be working, if most kids have to repeat the intervention. Also, the teachers have all been trained already. Why, does the district need to pay millions a year to LMB still? Because, their progrm is not allowed to be used by VUSD (trained or not) unless their LMB employees are there to observe. We are paying an outside complany 3.4 million dollars a year to have LMB "consultants" at each school site...and they do NOT work with children. They are not allowed to since they are not credentialed educators. Now, whatever the program is, it seems to me that we can not afford to keep paying an outside company to babysit our teachers who were already trained. Keep the program, but dump the overpaid consulatants. Also, this administration has remodeled the District Office, including a gourmet kitchen in which Dr. Bales' son cooks for the D.O. personnel. Is that necessary when our kids are going to be in classes of 32? She has created 3 new DO positions since Dr. Cowles left, all probably close to the 200,000 range. This is wasteful. We are going to fire teachers, speech therapists and psycologists which already share duties at multiple schools??? And not ONE suggested cut for the District ADMIN?? NOT ONE?? Come on people, something is fishy at VUSD. This is not about the kids. And whoever keeps ranting about the teachers union...get over it. If the union was so strong, 133 of their members wouldn't be being laid off.

Shelley12 wrote on Feb 24, 2008 1:32 PM:There has been so much talk about whos's at fault in this crisis we should be angry at Arnold, he is a large part of the problem. What are people doing to let him know that it is not fair for education to take a 10% cut.
We have a lottery system in this state, why can't the money from the lottery be added to the budget for education instead of removing dollar for dollar from the budget. I personally do not buy lottery tickets for that reason. If we did that while we might have a shortfall I don't think we would be where we are now.
Some fat to cut, district employees with district paid cell phones, what happened to leave a message they will get back to you. Email messages, they can reply and there is a paper trail.
District employees being given a car allowance, let them use district owned cars.Or if they use there own car get a millage allowance like business does. When the district buys new cars make them efficient.
Improve the quality of school food. have you seen the crap they serve your kids lately, and not healthy either. You can make it from fresh a lot cheaper than packaged.
Each school goes green, less photocopies,no styrofoam that goes into a landfill.
Let parents buy the school supplies for the kids not the district. If parents cannot afford to pay for it then supplement it.
Each school should have a program to drop off recycleables. The collection companies currentyl pay $1.75 per pound for cans, plastic can also be recycled.
Sell used textbooks to other districts in the country instead of throwing them into the trash.
Don't have private duty nurses for the kids who need them let one or two schools have nurses on staff to take care of them. The students would still be with regular kids but save money by not paying for private duty nurses.
As for Dr Bales son being here to protect her from certain individuals if she is not a big enough girl to handle verbal attacks then this is not the job for her. I have never seen or heard that she is being physically threatened so I assume it is verbal, if not she needs to do what the rest of us would do call the police not her son. We are all entitled to our opinions about her and anyone else for that matter.
Few people who have ever been in her position have done so without having those on the other side. She is also part of the problem and after almost 2 years here has to accept that.

Vista parent wrote on Feb 24, 2008 1:54 PM:VTA is not about Teachers, only money. Cowles is proof of that! He and many of his cronies got out of VUSD with huge golden handshakes. By the way, Bales isn't being paid any more than Cowles was when you figure the inflation rates. So, what all did VUSD accomplish under Cowles? Well we went from #1 in the County to dead last. We went from a balance budget to Broke. We created huge unfunded retirement benefits. And that last one was directly a result of the POWER of the Union. You are correct that the Union has very little power when it comes to lay-offs. But, they have shown their power when it came to various Teachers who should have been let go. The Union has fought long and hard to keep mediocre teachers in place, and to provide large pay raises to Certified Administrators (yes, they are Credential Teachers and members of VTA). The VTA really does NOT care about the average teacher, only their dues. Get rid of the Union control of VUSD and the CA Education System as a whole, return control to local citizens, and you will see a return to the greatness CA once knew in its schools. Unfortunately the CTA has too much power in Sacramento, and VTA utilizes that power to keep teachers in line. What do I mean by that? Those teachers who do better than all the rest are cast out because they make the rest look bad. The Union wants all teachers to be equal in the amount of work they do, and the quality of that work. Top performers are chastized for their efforts. That is why so many young teachers come in to the business and leave so soon. The quickly find out that hard work does NOT pay off in Public Schools. They have idealistic veiws about helping children, only to find out that if they do an outstanding job, the rest of the old-timers get upset at them for rocking the boat. The Union is of course no help as it is run by the old-timers who often are some of the most burned out teachers. Unions have out lived their usefulness. Turn the Schools over to the people, pay teacher based on their performance, and you will see teachers getting paid what they are worth (more than they get today) and you will see the Administration shrink to a reasonable size, and finally you will see children learning again!

To Shelly12 wrote on Feb 24, 2008 2:07 PM:Nice ideas, but most are either not practical or not legal. Arnold, though he could have vetoed the Budget, is NOT the one doing the Cutting: It was the Assembly and the Senate! Time to take a class on our political System here in CA! As to the fairness of budget cuts; have you noticed that we seem to be going into a bit of a recession lately? When that happens the State revenues fall, and thus ALL budgets get cut. And last but not least, there would be a whole lot more money for education if the Socialists in Sacramento weren’t constantly coming up with more things to spend our tax dollars on! We already have a requirement that 50% of our Sate Budget go to Education. Over the past few years there has been enough money to provide more than 50% to Education. But, now in these lean times there are other programs that are legally mandated that must get funded. So, Education gets cut! Granted, it is not being cut below the legal limit of 50%, but if you were to listen to the CTA ads you'd believe it was. No, it is only going down to its legal limit of 50% for the high it reached recently of nearly 60%. So, realize that things are going to be tight over the next few years and help find ways to clean up this mess. Also, per student spending would be far greater if we only had Legal Citizens attending our schools. But that is another story!

Budget Cuts wrote on Feb 24, 2008 2:22 PM:When I attended school here in Southern CA we had not Heaters in the Winter and No Air Conditions in the Summer. Nobody died of frost bite or heat stroke. So, why not turn of the A/C and Heat! Save a few Million Dollars in the Utility Bill and Keep the teachers in the classrooms!

Shelley12 wrote on Feb 24, 2008 5:34 PM:If it would keep teachers in the classroom, agreed.

Sad State wrote on Feb 24, 2008 6:15 PM:I can't believe the only administrative positions suggested for elimation were assistant principals and the director of special education. We have 3 former principals now acting as "Directors" of Curriculum. We get our curriculum from state adopted programs. Why do we need these positions, especially in a budget crunch? As for LMB, the program helps a tiny fraction of our students. The reason test scores are going up is because of the accountability of classroom teachers. Not one of my students who has attended LMB could be considered a "proficient reader" after 90+ hours of intensive intervention. Is this a good use of our limited money? And if the district ends up cutting class size reduction, you'll see the number of students who need intensive help soar. The only people I know who are putting kids first are the parents and teachers. The administration and board has an agenda that does not put children first.

Vista Teacher wrote on Feb 24, 2008 7:39 PM:Yes, it is a Sad State in which we live. Many years ago we were on top, but then Agendized indoctrination began to take place. We are even now looking at a requirement to teach Global Climate Change in our K-12 Schools. Yet, the emphasis on the Basics and proper time and funding to teach these basics are all going by the way side. It is all well and good to want our children to know about all these things that are going on in our world. But, if they can't read, write, and think critically for themselves, all we end up with is a bunch of mind-numbed robots who repeat what they've heard without taking a critical look at it and deciding for themselves. America became the greatest country in the world because of the intense individualism and strong emphasis on the right to decide for yourself what is best for you and your future. What we are now producing in our schools is a bunch of people who constantly look to their Government for answers as opposed to rolling up their own sleeves, digging in, and doing what is required to get the job done right the first time! Teachers are great people, but when they are not allowed to do their job, because of all the many social programs foisted upon them, even the best of them will eventually crumble. I have been in the classroom coming up on 30 years now, and I can tell you it is a chore just to get out of bed these days. But, then I remember the successes I've had over the years and the many young faces that have shown that knowing smile when they finally get it, and I drag myself out of bed, head off to my classroom, say a quick prayer for my students, put on a smile, and supply my students with not only hope, but the skills they will need to achieve their dreams. Yes, it is a Sad State in which we live, and God willing we will again return to those glory days of quality education. But, it will take returning to the basics if we are to have any chance of getting there.
Thank you, good night, and God Bless,
VT

to "Sad State" wrote on Feb 25, 2008 10:04 AM:How sad that we have been put in this position by the state officials who were okay with cutting 10% of school budgets. Such a shame!

Regarding LMB:
It is true that after 90 hours of instruction, some students still need more help. When a 4th grader is tested and found to be reading at a 1st grade level, you've got three years work of reading instruction to catch them up on. I say, 90 hours isn't a whole lot of time considering how far behind most of the students in Vista's schools are.

How lucky these kids have been to be instructed at their level, and moved through the LMB programs until they reach grade level. I have seen students make years of growth with these programs. And, while they are being pulled from class to get caught up, their classroom teacher is able to work with the kids who are ready to move more quickly. What is wrong with this model?

Also, the idea behind the model is for teachers in the district to adopt the programs themselves so that the LMB people can leave. Pueblo school district used to have many LMB employees, just as Vista does. Today, Pueblo only has a couple, if any. The district is paying a fraction, and students get help because the teachers there are using the programs with a high level of proficiency.

Maybe instead of complaining, some of you should ask a child who has been through the LMB program what they think of it. Has it helped them? Take a look at some pre and post scores, or the CST data from the schools who had a full implementation of LMB. If then, you find the program failing, go ahead and keep complaining.

to "Sad News" wrote on Feb 25, 2008 10:57 AM:How sad that we have been put in this position by the state officials who were okay with cutting 10% of school budgets. Such a shame!

Regarding LMB:
It is true that after 90 hours of instruction, some students still need more help. When a 4th grader is tested and found to be reading at a 1st grade level, you've got three years work of reading instruction to catch them up on. I say, 90 hours isn't a whole lot of time considering how far behind most of the students in Vista's schools are.

How lucky these kids have been to be instructed at their level, and moved through the LMB programs until they reach grade level. I have seen students make years of growth with these programs. And, while they are being pulled from class to get caught up, their classroom teacher is able to work with the kids who are ready to move more quickly. What is wrong with this model?

Also, the idea behind the model is for teachers in the district to adopt the programs themselves so that the LMB people can leave. Pueblo school district used to have many LMB employees, just as Vista does. Today, Pueblo only has a couple, if any. The district is paying a fraction, and students get help because the teachers there are using the programs with a high level of proficiency. The idea is for the LMB folks to get the heck out as soon as possible.

Maybe instead of complaining, some of you should ask a child who has been through the LMB program what they think of it. Has it helped them? Take a look at some pre and post scores, or the CST data from the schools who had a full implementation of LMB. If then, you find the program failing, go ahead and keep complaining.

TAE wrote on Feb 25, 2008 2:32 PM:
Two budget suggestions:

1.) VUSD needs to require part-time (any employee who works less than 40 hours a week) to pay for health benefits. Premium free health care benefits for every employee is a big budget killer.I can't believe that people who work 6 hours a day get paid health insurance for themselves and their family.

2.) Consolidate the director positions. Last month there were four director positions open. Directors of Finance, Purchasing, Maint/Ops and Facilities. Get rid of two and consolidate.

Consolidation wrote on Feb 25, 2008 8:51 PM:Consolidate a few schools while your at it. Maybe even try returning to MTYR. That was a big buget saver as it actually qualified VUSD for extra funding from the State. Close one or two of the k-5 schools and sell them to cover the costs of finishing the Magnet High Schools and renovating Lincoln so that you can expand the Magnet Middle school located there.

Of course, there is alway the option to go to a K-6, 7-9, 10-12 system which would allow you to alleviate your overcrowding at the High Schools starting next Fall without any need for the Magnet High Schools. I believe you would realize significant saving from this option as well, and you could even sell the Melrose/76 property and return funds to the taxpayers who paid for the Bond. Then, when you later go back to the voters for a future Bond you can always remind them of the money you returned to them on the last one (granted, some of us will remimber you didn't complete all the projects, and significantly overran those that you did).

There are many ways you can trim you buget without needing to negatively impact the quality of education you are provinding. But, it will take thinking outside the box!