After more months than I expected, the District and the San Carlos Teachers Association reached an agreement on contract terms. The SCTA approved the tentative agreement last week, and last night the Board voted unanimously to ratify it. You can read more about it on the District website.
One point that I hope doesn’t get lost as we move forward: the 2009/10 budget (i.e., for the year just ended) was adopted based on a state forecast that showed education funding increasing for the 2010/11 school year. The 2010/11 budget we just adopted is not based on an increase, and, at best, we’ll be lucky if the state doesn’t further reduce education spending.
Yet this year’s official state forecast for the 2011/12 school year shows an increase of about the same level as we were told last year we’d have this year. The state’s track record on forecasting a turnaround in its fortunes is, to put it mildly, dismal. And perhaps deliberately overly optimistic.
If you’re a betting man, don’t bet on a turnaround for the 2011/12 school year. And do bet on a difficult and protracted negotiating season during the latter part of the school year we’ve just started.