Letter to the Editor:
It’s The Money, Not the Teachers
Paul Gerard is currently campaigning for a seat on the Burbank Unified Board of Education {BUSD} as a Trustee in District 3. The main focus of Paul’s campaign is restoring fiscal stability to the school district.
The teachers in our schools are currently doing an excellent job of providing a quality education for our city’s youth. They not only have a rock solid understanding of the subject matter they teach, but they also provide a safe and welcoming environment for our children, recognize, identify and serve those children with special needs, and they demonstrate a keen acceptance of all student’s individua needs, including issues of diversity and equality. Our teachers do their best to ensure that all BUSD students have equal access to a quality education.
What our teachers need more than anything is an end to the financial crisis that has been and continues to plague our district. Teachers need to feel confident that all of our valuable educational programs will be adequately funded, that the BUSD will no longer waste millions of dollars on payouts to administrators who were not qualified to do their jobs in the first place, that layoffs will not be part of the plan to balance the budget every spring and that employee benefit packages and retirement funds will remain securely in place.
The current Board of Education has consistently demonstrated over the past few years that they continue to use unsound judgement in their approach to keeping our district fiscally sound. There is clear evidence of this based on the decision made by the Los Angeles County Board of Education (LACOE) to demand that the BUSD submit a Fiscal Stabilization Plan that addresses how the current board will remedy a budget that shows deficit spending to the tune of 9 million dollars in this year alone! In addition to this, LACOE has assigned the BUSD the designation of “Lack of Going Concern”. This requires that a fiscal expert be assigned to the BUSD by LACOE to oversee and advise the district with regards to correcting these issues. And to top it off, BUSD is required to spend general fund dollars to pay LACOE for providing these services. That is money that could be used for educational services to kids and not to correct errors that should never have happened in the first place. And, most importantly, the “Lack of Going Concern” designation means that the BUSD may be unable to meet its financial obligations for not just the current school year, but for the two subsequent years as well!!
A vote for Paul Gerard for the Burbank Unified School District Board of Education is a vote to restore the district’s financial health while at the same time honoring the employees who provide outstanding education and support services, whether in or outside of the classroom. I hope Area 3 voters will elect Paul Gerard to represent all of Burbank and help return BUSD to fiscal stability and to a position of admiration that it once held in the educational community.
Les Cohen
Burbank, Retired BUSD High School Counselor
