School Closings in Temecula????

My children are proud Roadrunners at Rancho Elementary. The thought of their school closing is heart breaking. I know budgets are tight, but I would be interested how much we could trim at the the district office before even considering destroying strong community schools in Temecula. People move to Temecula for the strong sense of community and the outstanding schools. If we lose our schools, do we lose our community? Below is the email sent out by Carol A. Leighty, Ed.D. Superintendent

The Board of Education of the Temecula Valley Unified School District is making very difficult decisions in order to balance our budget for the 2010-2011 school year. Despite the deeply appreciated agreements from our employee associations and management for furlough days and the deeply regretted but necessary employee lay-offs, a gap of approximately six milllion dollars still exists.

As the board continues to deliberate, staff brings many items of information to them in order assist in their decision making.

Once again, the closing of a school continues to be an option to further reduce the deficit. We did close Sparkman Elementary in 2009. This was a difficult decision and not made lightly. Faced with even deeper cuts this year, the board and staff agreed all possible options must be considered.

At the meeting of March 16, staff presented to the board many options to further close the budget gap. Some of these options include reducing Home to School Transportation, realignment of Athletic funding and another elementary school closure.

The following schools were identified due to their enrollments: Paloma, Pauba Valley, Red Hawk and Rancho.

Staff provided information regarding the impact of a possible school closure to the identified schools and surrounding school communities. This data resulted in a recommendation to the board that NO additional elementary schools be closed. The board agreed they are not interested in closing another school at this time.

In the future, if additional state budget cuts reduce our funding yet again, a school closure may be revisited. Should that be the case, we will notify affected sites prior to Board discussion.
Please be assured the TVUSD School Board is carefully gathering information and making difficult but necessary decisions to keep our district fiscally solvent. The budget information shared last night was for information only and no action was taken.

Sincerely,


Carol A. Leighty, Ed.D.
Superintendent