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| Since December 22, 2004 |
Layoff on the layoffs already: A Planetarium falls to an administrative achievement gap?
At the June 19th board meeting a group of supporters gathered outside the East Side Union High School District Office with beautiful posters, personalized t-shirts, and planetary paraphernalia. They came to tell the board to save the Independence High School planetarium, one of the many line items district officials have recommended for elimination due to state-level budget cuts.
One of the most unique education facilities in San Jose, the IHS planetarium opened in 1976 and was originally part of the Independence campus. Unlike other local planetariums such as the Fujitsu planetarium at De Anza College or the Rosicrucian planetarium at the Egyptian Museum, the IHS planetarium serves elementary, middle and high school students throughout San Jose’s east side for a fraction of the cost. Few high schools let alone school districts can boast of possessing this type of facility. The cost to the district to run the planetarium is just above $100k.
Planetarium supporters spoke passionately about the facility, and a number of former IHS students described how their experience at the planetarium impacted their future career decisions. Unfortunately, impassioned speeches cannot provide the necessary funding to keep a facility operating. In a lean budget year, difficult choices have to be made. That is why the ESUHSD trustees have also cut library service and trimmed back on classified employees at all school sites.
However, not shortly after the planetarium speakers left the building, the Board of Trustees proposed the creation of a new administrative position — the achievement gap administrator. This district-level position would cost about the same amount as maintaining the planetarium, begging the question of how a school district that cut classified staff, virtually eliminated librarians, and laid off a slew of personnel only to hire them back a few weeks later could conscionably create a new administrative position replete with secretarial support and an ample six-figure salary with full benefits all in a three month period?
Mr. Nunez ultimately doesn’t have much to do with the actions of the board when it comes to creating a new position. The March layoff had more to do with incompetence in the human resources department, but bears eerie similarities to a layoff Nunez oversaw while in charge of human resources in Riverside (
). However, given the deplorable state of California’s education budget, one would think Nunez would have the wherewithal to persuade the trustees to act a little more wisely when it comes to creating new administrative positions during a layoff. Nunez is, by his own admission, a bureaucrat, not an educator. Wouldn’t a professional bureaucrat recognize the folly?
Maybe not. When Board member Eddie Garcia proposed the idea, he told the Mercury News and others that the funding would come from a different source than the general fund or other district-controlled categorical funding. East Side has a secret stash? Maybe the trustees have uncovered a little funding pot at the end of a rainbow those in a certain age bracket have been seeking for decades.
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