Education

SF Schools To Declare Financial State Of Emergency

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ― CBS 5 has learned that San Francisco Superintendant of Schools Carlos Garcia will impose a state of emergency in the district on Thursday, which sets the stage for big budget cuts. 

It will be the first school district emergency declaration in the state, but likely, not the last.

California schools get threatened often by budget cuts during budget debates, however this time it looks to be different.

"Of course it's terrible, absolutely terrible," said San Francisco teachers union chief Dennis Kelly. With decades of experience in the district, he said it's never been this bad.

City Supervisor Tom Ammiano was a teacher and school board member before he ended up at City Hall. The governor's proposed 10 per cent across the board cut could subtract $50 million dollars out of San Francisco schools.

"When it comes to the cash, and some of the resources required, we're very, very thin," he said.

"We read every day about the science gap with China and Japan and so on", said Lowell High School teacher Paul Tray. "We're not going to have the bunson burners, the microscopes. The science teachers are going to be running for supplies, into their own pockets."

Will there be fewer teachers? More crowded classrooms? There's a great fear the proposed cuts could do just that.

Tray said, "They remind me of what happened in '91 when 1200 teachers got layoff notices. Imagine the impact that had on those new teachers."

Supertendent Garcia is brand new in his job, and the district has never had such a state of emergency. Just what he can and can't do under such an announcement is not clear.

But if nothing else, it puts students, teachers, and parents on notice that big changes could be coming, and they aren't good ones.

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