The economy in my little corner of the world. [View All]

[AlCzervik]

I wanted to post a snap shop of what's been going on here, please add your own.


El Dorado County grounds popular bookmobile

By Todd Milbourn
Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, March 15, 2008

A chapter is closing in El Dorado County.

After seven years of shuttling books to the far reaches of the rural county, the bookmobile is headed to the garage.

County officials voted to stop the service last week, as part of a raft of cost-cutting measures designed to help bridge a $14.8 million budget shortfall.

"I used to work for government, and I understand they gotta do their little thing and stamp out some costs," said Terry Whitfield, 70, a historical novel enthusiast who lives in a Placerville senior home along the route. "But I'll tell you one thing: I need my books."

El Dorado's elimination of the bookmobile is emblematic of the stark choices facing governments across the region. Confronted with staggering budget shortfalls, they are trying to make ends meet any way they can: Cutting travel. Laying off workers. Trimming programs. Raising fees.

Robert Waste, a California State University, Sacramento, government professor, calls it the "ritualistic budget dance." He said the steps are well-documented:

The first thing local governments usually do in tough budget times is announce across-the-board cuts to all departments – except politically popular public safety agencies. If that's not enough, they send out a memo canceling travel, try to squeeze some money out of contracts and delay paying for big new roads or new parks.

more at link
http://www.sacbee.com/101/v-print/story/787633.html


Dixon district cuts to take toll on students

By Deb Kollars -
Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, March 15, 2008

The Dixon Unified School District is making deep reductions in programs and services to stop a trail of red ink that turned up after the former superintendent, Roberto Salinas, negotiated a retirement buyout and left the district.

Salinas now holds a prominent position, paid through a private grant, with the state Department of Education. He said Friday he did not learn Dixon schools were in financial distress until the day he signed his buyout agreement, Sept. 28, when his chief business official broke the bad news to him.

The chief business official, Susan Rinne, left the district several weeks later and now works as the interim director of fiscal services for Solano Community College. Rinne did not respond to a Bee request for an interview.

According to Solano County Office of Education officials, the budget mess came about because of numerous and sizable accounting errors.

The resulting cuts to Dixon schools have hit the close-knit Solano County community like a fiscal tornado, coming hard, fast and out of the blue and tearing into program after program.

No school, no student age group, no tier of employees has been spared.

Come this fall in elementary schools, children will no longer have computer technicians to help them navigate the Web, or library clerks to help them research and check out books. At the gleaming new high school, counseling hours will be cut by at least one quarter, and a dozen freshman coaches will lose their stipends. Districtwide, schools next fall will receive 12 fewer hours of care each day because 1 1/2 janitorial positions will be gone. By the end of next week, one of four elementary campuses will be slated for closure.

"It has been shocking," said Dan Rott, the principal at Tremont Elementary School in Dixon. Among his school's losses: two reading teachers, the library and computer technicians, two hours of daily secretarial and health technician time and 20 percent of the materials budget.

"We're closing a school because of incompetence," said Delynda Eldridge, a mother of two Dixon schoolchildren, during a parent meeting Tuesday evening to discuss which school should go. "Now our kids are paying the price."

more at link
http://www.sacbee.com/101/v-print/story/787558.html

Elk Grove school board sets pink slip guidelines

By Melissa Nix -
Published 6:07 am PDT Wednesday, March 12, 2008

The Elk Grove Unified School District board adopted a resolution 5-0 Tuesday night that determines who will get pink slips when a number of workers have the same seniority.

Board members Pamela Irey and Chet Madison Sr. were absent.

Notification is based on seniority, but in some cases, as many as 20 district employees have the same starting date.

The resolution establishes a point system to break ties in such cases, said Elizabeth Graswich, the district's director of communications.

Of the 217 positions, 137 are full-time certificated positions, including three counselors, 56 elementary teachers, 17 ninth-grade math teachers, 17 ninth-grade English teachers, six high school life science teachers, six high school social studies teachers, one high school business teacher, one world language teacher, two high school physical education teachers and 28 instructional coaches.

http://www.sacbee.com/101/v-print/story/779536.html