As they face a deficit as high as $203 million, San Diego schools are thinking about getting rid of people (librarians and vice principals), programs (arts and magnet ones) and even campuses (five elementary schools might close).
These are ideas at this point, although they could become reality. And then what?
That’s the question facing district officials as they try to figure out what to do if their financial situation gets even worse thanks to state cuts.
The head honchos could choose to wait to figure out what to do, and history suggests that’s not a bad idea. After all, scary budget predictions are often wrong. But settling for a poor grade in “Planning Ahead” could be hazardous to the district’s financial health.
In other news:
- A Superior Court judge has finalized a ruling targeting a levy on property owners that pays for uses to neighborhood trash cleanup, sidewalk sweeping and graffiti removal in San Diego’s Golden Hill neighborhood. The city may appeal.
- More than three years ago, San Diego voters decided the city should be allowed to put municipal services up for bid.
Outsourcing hasn’t exactly come to pass. Yesterday, Councilman Carl DeMaio launched a bid to put a measure on the November 2010 ballot that would once again put privatization before voters, but this time with more of what he considers to be safeguards.
A local labor coalition is sounding the alarm, saying DeMaio’s plan hurts workers and fails to protect taxpayers.
In other City Hall news, San Diego’s financial hole is getting deeper for the current year, too.
- When it comes to software used to track criminal cases, San Diego city and county prosecutors are now on the same page. But they disagree on how much the public should know about the inner workings of the software.
- Also: Our Photo of the Day shows us one of the creatures at the Wild Animal Park standing tall. The soundtrack for this photo is courtesy of the Flaming Lips.
Elsewhere:
- The U-T reports that Mayor Jerry Sanders will propose cutbacks today, with the “most visible cuts” targeting libraries. Other cuts include about 200 pink slips for employees, less beach cleanup and, possibly, less-frequent trash pickup.
- The National City office of the ACORN community organizing group is in the news again, this time for apparently throwing thousands of pages of documents into a dumpster, including private information about clients. (NBC San Diego)
- Joel Anderson, the East County assemblyman facing a campaign-fund investigation, defends what the U-T calls “a campaign-style mailer at taxpayer expense” which “some say” is targeted at a potential rival for a state Senate seat. “I’m not even in the race and already I’m being ripped — for what? Doing my job as an assemblyman,” he tells the paper.
The embattled Anderson was interviewed at El Cajon’s Mother Goose Parade, where any thoughts he had of staying out of the spotlight were clearly a fairy tale.