Mt. Diablo school board OKs $4 million in cuts

The Mt. Diablo Unified School District board of trustees agreed to cut $4 million to the budget Tuesday night, but that leaves many more millions that need to be cut, the Contra Costa Times reports. About the board's Tuesday night, the Times says:

The $4 million in cuts over two years will affect adult education, counseling and other programs. Several school secretaries spoke in support of retaining their positions, which had been recommended for elimination before being taken off a list of cuts voted on earlier this month. However, trustees could vote to eliminate those positions next month. ...


The trustees also unanimously voted to reject a charter school application...

Mt Diablo schools struggle in various ways to deal with next round of likely budget cuts

Tonight, the Mt. Diablo School Board will meet to discuss, on several fronts, what are likely to be the next round of severe budget cuts. According to the Mt. Diablo Blog, the word from the state is that that the budget shortfall is expected to be $20.7 billion over the next 18 months.

On December 8th we will begin the process of looking at reductions and we need our community to weigh in. On December 14th there will be a community meeting to discuss action plans on how we are going to move forward as a community to protect services that we provide to our students. A link to the information for that meeting is contained here.

At the same time, the board is expected to vote tonight on extending the teacher contracts for the next three years, which will save teachers from salary cuts but also freeze any salary increases. A parent posted a commentary voicing concern about keeping the contract in place on the MDUSD parents blog:

Is that fair? I don't think so. In the same meeting they will be discussing more cuts that will impact the students, and then will vote to keep status quo for the teachers?

Parents and other community members are rallying to find ways to raise money to protect programs. As Claycord.com reported the Mount Diablo Education Foundation will hold a 24-hour Music-A-Thon early next year to save elementary school music. The fourth grade music program was cut in last year’s cuts, and now the fifth-grade program is at risk. Elementary, middle, and high school bands will perform for 24 hours over the weekend of January 16 and 17 at Concord High School to raise money for these programs.

Finally, if you’re interested in working on a new effort to pass another parcel tax, you can attend another meeting on Monday, December 14 to hear the results of a recent community polling effort as well as learn how you can help.

As you may remember, in the spring, the district attempted to pass a $99 per parcel tax that would have greatly reduced the necessity to further cut education spending. The measure received 59 percent approval from voters—a majority, yes—but not the two-thirds majority necessary for passage.

County finds one small way to make more money: raise fees for removing and storing dead people

The Contra Costa Board of Supervisors this week approved a way for the severely cash-strapped Sheriff’s Deparment to bring in an additional $90,000. The Sheriff’s Department, which also runs the Coroner’s Department, has been granted the authority to charge more than twice as much for removing and storing dead bodies.

Under state law, county coroners can charge for removing and storing a dead body. This fee “is not assessed for persons who are indigent, or when the decedent is 14 years of age or younger or was the victim of a crime.”

Captain Jon Cox, the chief deputy of the Coroner’s Office, told the supervisors at their Tuesday meeting that Contra Costa has only charged $100 per body removal for quite a while. He was requesting that supervisors allow the Coroner’s Office to raise that fee to $267.

In a report to the supervisors, the Coroner’s Office said it handled the removal of 668 bodies in the previous fiscal year. I haven’t asked yet, but I’m assuming that the Coroner’s Office is, in some cases, referring to those cases of someone who suddenly dies at home or some place else, in which the coroners need to come, remove the body, and hold it until it can be transported to a funeral home for services.

In 543 of those 668 cases, fees were assessed. The Coroner’s Office bases its need for revenue increase on their estimate that it takes a coroner’s deputy an average of three hours to pick up and remove a body—and the hourly rate for a deputy is around $89.

There was no public debate at the supervisors meeting about this request (which you can watch here), and Supervisor Mary N. Piepho praised the Sheriff’s Department for coming up with a way to “recapture the costs of services” the county provides.

Of course, $90,000 is probably the proverbial drop in the bucket, considering that the Sheriff’s Department had to slash its budget and lay off 56 deputies.