Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
CASBO School Business Magazine Spring 2010
Citation preview
california
California Association of School Business Officials Spring 2010
schoolbusinessBEYOND THE RECESSIONAre better times ahead for public education?
MAKING THE CONNECTION
CULTIVATING COMMITMENT
Social networking:A new communications tool for schools
How to keep top-notch employees
2 | California School Business
PFM Financial Servicesfull page
color
Offered through PFM Financial Services LLC CO-SPONSORED BY CASBO AND ACSA
PPay feb08 ads_final.indd 1 2/20/08 7:58:19 PM
Spring 2010 | 5
contents departments 9 Checking in Entitlement, dysfunction and the greater good BrianLewis
10 Mail bag
13 Bottom line Presidency rewarding, challenging in unexpected ways SharonKetcherside
15 In focus CASBO member profile: Patricia Koch 51 Out & about Photos from CASBO events statewide
52 Book club FearlessLeadership
53 First person We can do anything if we stay positive KevinSwartzendruber
58 Last words
cover story32 Beyond the recession Are better times ahead for public education? JuliePhillipsRandles
interview17 Philanthropist works to improve public education through better governance, management, competition Eli Broad weighs in on urban school improvement, reforms needed in California JuliePhillipsRandles
features24 Making the connection Social networking: A new communications tool for schools LindaA.Estep
43 Cultivating commitment How to keep top-notch employees JulieSturgeon
Volume 75 Number 1 Spring 2010
24
15
43
6 | California School Business
publisher
editor in chief
features editor
contributors
editorial assistant
design/layout
cartoon
advertising art
casbo officers
president
president-elect
vice president
immediate past president
advertising sales manager
Brian Lewis
Jodi Jackson
Julie Phillips Randles
Linda A. Estep
Molly McGee-Hewitt
Dennis Meyers
Julie Sturgeon
Kevin Swartzendruber
Kristen Jacoby
Sharon Adlis
Shawn Turner
Lori Mattas
Sharon KetchersideSacramentoCountyOfficeofEducation
Renee HendrickOrangeCountyDepartmentofEducation
Gary MatsumotoHaciendaLaPuenteUnifiedSchoolDistrict
Eric D. SmithSantaBarbaraSchoolDistricts
CiCi TrinoAssociationOutsourceServices,Inc.115SpringWaterWayFolsom,CA95630916.990.9999
www.casbo.org
CaliforniaSchoolBusiness (ISSN# 1935-0716) is published quarterly by the California Association of School BusinessOfficials, 1001 K Street, 5th Floor, Sacramento, CA 95814. (916) 447-3783. $2 of CASBO membership dues goes towardthe subscription to CaliforniaSchoolBusiness magazine. The subscription rate for each CASBO nonmember is $20. Periodicals postage paid at Sacramento and at additional mailing office. Send address changes to the CASBO membership department at 1001 K Street, 5th Floor, Sacramento, CA 95814.
Articles published in CaliforniaSchoolBusiness are edited for style, content and space prior to publication. Views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent CASBO policies or positions. Endorsement by CASBO of products and services advertised in CaliforniaSchoolBusiness is not implied or expressed.
Copyright 2010 CASBO. All rights reserved. The contents of the publication may not be reproduced by any means, in wholeor in part, without the prior written consent of the publisher.
Published March 2010
ABOUT CASBO
A private, nonprofit corporation,
CASBO was founded in 1928 and
is the oldest statewide school
administrator’s organization in
California. Association members
are the voice of the industry
and oversee all areas of school
business management and
operations, including finance,
accounting, payroll, human
resources, risk management,
transportation, school nutrition,
maintenance and operations,
information technology, purchasing,
school safety and school facilities.
CASBO MISSION
The mission of CASBO, the leader
in school business management,
is to set the standard for best
business practices and policies
that support public education
through high-quality professional
development and effective advocacy,
communication and collaboration.
STRATEGIC PLAN
In April 2007, the association
adopted its new strategic plan
that will serve as a road map for
the organization’s activities for the
next several years in the areas of
administration and governance,
professional development,
advocacy and policy, marketing
and communications, and
membership and partnerships.
For more details on the strategic
plan, visit our Web site at www.
casbo.org. The plan can be found
under the “organization” link.
Spring 2010 | 7
Better reporting with Smarter Data
IV_SBA_Ad_Q1_2010_CASBO 2/24/2010 PM Page 1
InfiniteVisions.com | 888.654.3293
The most trusted Financial and Human Resources software, services and support in K-12.
Finance
Human ResouRces
PayRoll
state RePoRting
WoRkFloW
emPloyee selF-seRvice
PuRcHasing
BeneFit enRollment
Fixed asset
accounts PayaBle
WaReHouse
gRants PRoject tRacking
accounts ReceivaBle
Copyright 2010 Windsor Management Group. Infinite Visions is a registered trademark of Windsor Management Group. All rights reserved.
Make running more business reports with less
IT involvement the norm with InfiniteVisions®,
K-12’s most effective Financial and Human
Resources management solution from Windsor
Management Group. Offering unlimited reporting,
dashboard snapshots of your business, and the
ability to automate and integrate everyday financial
and HR tasks, Infinite Visions lets CASBO Members
make better decisions so you can put the focus
back on student achievement.
Booth 803
at the
CASBO
Conference!
8 | California School Business
A NAME YOU CAN TRUST
Zuk does not charge fees or receive compensation
for Zuk Solutions. While the primary objective of the
program is to provide education, enhance awareness
and raise financial literacy, Zuk Solutions may
also save employers money, eliminate conflicts of
interest, elevate compliance and improve employee
satisfaction.
Securities and Advisory services offered through National Planning Corporation (NPC), Member FINRA/SIPC, a Registered Investment Adviser. Zuk Financial Group and NPC are separate and unrelated companies. 2/09
ZUKSOLUTIONSWe’ve Got Answerswww.zuksolutions.com
To See How Zuk Solutions Can Help Be Your SolutionCONTACT ZUK AT: 888-488-8480 OR EMAIL: [email protected]
A LONG TRACK RECORD
You may be familiar with Zuk Financial Group and
our 35 year history in personal retirement planning
services. What you may not be aware of, is that we
also provide Zuk Solutions – A premier Third Party
Administration/Management resource for 403(b) and
457(b) plans to help ensure total transparency as
well as the latest and best business practices.
THE TPA ADMINISTRATION TESTWHY CHOOSE ZUK AS YOUR THIRD PARTY ADMINISTRATION/MANAGEMENT (TPA)
RESOURCE FOR 403(B) AND 457(B) PLANS
True or False(Circle One)
I would feel nervous if the local paperwas writing an expose on my district’sretirement plan administration.
Spring 2010 | 9
checkingin
Entitlement,dysfunction and the greater good
Another day, another news story about dysfunction in government.
This time, U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, a two-term Indiana Democrat considered to be among the political
moderates in Congress, announced his decision to not run for re-election, despite a strong lead in early
polling. Why?
“For some time, I’ve had a growing conviction that Congress is not operating as it should,” he said.
“There is much too much partisanship and not enough progress, too much narrow ideology and not enough
practical problem-solving.” He equally criticized the political right and left. Rightfully so. Partisan gridlock
is nothing new in Washington, D.C., or Sacramento, for that matter.
What is new is the growing, diverse chorus of voices, including Bayh’s, telling us that something is
very wrong with our system of government at all levels. But how did we get here?
I’ve come to the conclusion that regardless of political philosophy, we in this society possess varying
levels of entitlement, and expect to always get what we want and what we think is right. While in our hearts
we may know better, we get caught up in the moment and that sense of entitlement rears it unrealistic and
ugly head. The truth is, especially these days, for us as individuals and for our country, there are challenges
for which we’re not sure we have the answers.
None of which means success is unattainable. But we must grapple with our parochial need to be in
control and be right. And when I say right, I mean correct – that sense that if it weren’t for those who think
differently than we do, we would all be fine, be better off.
Public polls repeatedly tell us that we all want high quality and affordable transportation, health care,
public schools and more, at the local, state and national levels. But we continue to want someone else to
pay for it. Not gonna happen. When will we decide what we really want, what we can really achieve and
what we are willing to pay for it? And if we can’t figure it out, how can we expect our elected leaders – at
whatever level – to do it for us?
As Bayh said, “I love helping our citizens make the most of their lives. But I do not love Congress.”
I’m not affiliated with a political party because the parties make it clear that their priority is achieving
what the party wants, not in seeking common ground and compromise for the benefit of all. That’s precisely
the issue Bayh is talking about. And it’s why he is leaving Congress.
I long ago concluded that we cannot govern successfully from the left or right – each wants what
they want to the exclusion of those who don’t think like them. And the truth is, we will never live in either
of their “perfect” worlds at opposite ends of the political/philosophical spectrum.
What will it take for us to step away from our philosophical corners, realize that everyone will never
be in total agreement, and work toward compromise solutions that serve the greater good?
Brian LewisExecutiveDirector
There is agrowing, diverse chorus of voices telling us that something is very wrong with our system of governmentat all levels.
10 | California School Business
mailbag
Letters to the editorThe elephant in publiceducation’s living room
The cover story, “Don’t Mention It – Sacrosanct
Issues Hamper California Schools,” in the winter
2009 issue was a good one, particularly in these
times of unrelenting budget pressure. In an era
when taxpayers are loathe to pony up the money
for good public services, and our politicians sepa-
rate themselves into warring camps and destroy
any idea of moderation and conciliation, every
sacred cow should be dragged into the light and
carefully examined to see if it still warrants sacred
cow status. Even the most sacred cow grows old
and ineffective.
Proposition 13 is one such sacred cow,
though it wasn’t mentioned even once in this
article. That’s a shame, because California’s
long decline began with the taxpayer revolt that
resulted in Prop. 13. Things in California haven’t been the same since.
Brian Tanguay, PurchasingCoordinator
SantaBarbaraSchoolDistricts
I would like to thank CASBO for a refreshingly
frank article about some of the unspoken chal-
lenges facing our schools. The economic crisis is
only one of the issues crippling the schools today.
The other issues that were discussed in the article
are equally important when attempting to under-
stand not only what is wrong with the education
system in California, but in finding solutions as
well. It is too simple to blame lack of funding as the
main cause of the schools’ woes. The unions, the
self-serving special interests, the refusal of some
to change and the inability of some school leaders
to make difficult or unpopular decisions all contrib-
ute to the overall problem. This was one of the best
articles I have ever read in the magazine. It’s about
time that we all started talking about what is really
wrong with the system and stop pointing fingers
across the table. Without discussing these very
difficult, but real issues, nothing can ever change.
Jeannie Goobanoff,Retired,ChairofCASBO’s
ProfessionalDevelopmentImplementationTeam
CaliforniaSchoolBusiness magazine welcomes “Letters to the Editor” on subjects covered in previous issues. Please send your letters to [email protected]. All letters are edited for content, space and style considerations.
Spring 2010 | 13
bottomline
By Sharon Ketcherside CASBO President
Presidency rewarding, challenging in unexpected ways
S i t t i n g d o w n t o w r i t e t h i s
column, i realize that my tenure
as casbo president is about to
come to an end, and i’m not ready
to say “goodbye.”
This experience has been reward-ing in ways I could not have predicted or imagined. I want to say “thank you” to casbo members for your support and guidance during the past year. I knew en-tering into my presidency last April that this was sure to be an exciting, enlighten-ing and challenging year for casbo.
Now, looking back, I can honestly say that I am proud of the many ac-complishments that we have achieved together over the year. My No. 1 prior-ity was to ensure that we move forward with the rewrite and adoption of a new Manual of Procedures (mop). At its Janu-ary meeting, the board of directors did just that…unanimously. This will allow casbo to implement our “re-engineered” governance structure as directed in our member-driven strategic plan, including the bylaws that were overwhelmingly passed last year.
You may be asking yourself why this is so crucial to our organization and its members. As we all know, casbo is an outstanding professional organization with a strong member base that encour-ages and welcomes participation. The new bylaws and mop afford all members a more efficient, smooth and transpar-
The new bylaws and mop afford all members a more efficient, smooth and transparent path to leadership.
ent path to leadership roles within the organization. Additionally, we have now aligned our section bylaws with our state association bylaws and mop. For casbo to continue to flourish and be the school business industry leader, we must all be on the same organizational page.
Thank you to all members for your timely and thoughtful input into this most important process over the last 3 ½ years. As we move forward, you are key to the success and implementation of the new bylaws and mop.
Now, I’d like to welcome aboard our new president, Renee Hendrick, execu-tive director, business services, for the Orange County Department of Educa-tion, who will take the reins at the end of our upcoming casbo Annual Confer-ence & California School Business Expo in Sacramento. We are fortunate to have Renee as our incoming president; she will serve casbo members well. I’d like to also welcome Michael Johnston, assistant su-perintendent, business services, at Clovis Unified School District, who will become vice president.
I’ve had the time of my life! I thank you for the opportunity to have served as your president; I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
My personal thanks and gratitude to our exemplary casbo staff and to Execu-tive Director Brian Lewis – you made it all possible.
Happy trails! See you around the campfire!
Sharon Ketcherside, of the Sacramento County Office of Education, serves as casbo president.
Spring 2010 | 15
infocus
Spring 2010 | 15Photography by Hope Harris
Patricia “Tish” Koch She’s CASBO’s strategic planning guru, school business sage
Patricia “Tish” Koch’s diversity of educational and professional experience
served her well in a 30-year career in school business. That unique back-
ground has also benefited CASBO where, with more than 15 years of
involvement, Koch has become the association’s authority on strategic
planning and best practices.
Koch attended Georgetown University and earned a degree in international
affairs as part of her plan for a career in foreign service. She worked at the
Library of Congress before returning to school to earn a master’s degree in
human learning at the Institute for Behavioral Research. In 1975, she went
West and earned a doctorate degree in special education from UCLA.
While completing her Ph.D., Koch accepted a contract from the Los Angeles
Unified School District to advise the district on special education resource
allocation. That three-month contract became a 13-year job focused on
assisting the district with financial planning, forecasting and allocating fund-
ing. Koch went on to become the assistant superintendent for business at
ABC Unified School District and later took the same post at Huntington Beach
Union High School District. She retired in 2004.
On behalf of CASBO, Koch has served on the Southern Section Finance R&D
Committee, as a member and chair of the Professional Development Com-
mittee, and is currently the volunteer facilitator of the strategic plan. She also
received the association’s Honorary Life Membership Award in 2009. With her
unique combination of education and experience, Koch has in a way become
the education community’s, and CASBO’s, sage. “The bridge between the phil-
osophical and the practical is the place where I spend most of my time,” Koch
said. That’s also where her dedication to strategic planning comes in to play.
Koch has long been involved in training and leading CASBO in the Cambridge
Model of strategic planning. She was introduced to the methodology at her
former district, and is now trained to bring it to other education organizations.
“If you line up your activities, focus and plans with a strategic plan you take
charge of your future,” Koch described. “We can let things happen or be part
of an effort to say ‘this is the future that I and my colleagues have committed
to and now we’re going to make it happen.’” Her dedication to public educa-
tion is equally enthusiastic. She describes it as “the most important activity
of a democratic society.”
Koch is passionate, as well, about the benefits of involvement in CASBO.
“There’s personal stagnation if you keep doing things the same way. Districts
are doing the same or more with less and they need intelligent, educated,
creative people who are constantly honing their skills and developing new
ones,” she noted. “You just don’t get it by staying in your office.”
Spring 2010 | 17
By Julie Phillips Randles
interviewPh
otos
by
Lisa
Tho
mps
on
Philanthropist works toimprove public education through better governance, management, competitionEli Broad weighs in on urbanschool improvement, reformsneeded in California
Eli Broad is a renowned business leader who, in
a 50-year business career, built two Fortune 500
companies before turning his sights toward full-time
philanthropy through The Broad Foundations, which
focus on education, science and the arts. To date, he has provided more than $400 million to dramatically improve urban k-12 education nationwide.
Broad, best known as the founder of SunAmerica Inc. and KB Home, is the child of immigrant parents who taught him to value hard work and the importance of education. He attended Detroit Public Schools and Michigan State University, graduat-ing with a degree in accounting and becoming the youngest cpa
in the state’s history. While working for two years as an accountant, Broad saw the
success his homebuilding clients were having and decided to col-laborate with his wife, Edythe’s, cousin’s husband to build houses. The two founded Kaufman and Broad – the first homebuilder to be traded on the American and New York stock exchanges.
Realizing that the homebuilding industry was cyclical, Broad wanted to diversify the business and in 1971 Kaufman and Broad acquired a small life insurance company for $52 mil-lion that he eventually transformed into a retirement savings empire. With the merger of SunAmerica into aig in 1999 – at a sales price of $18 billion – Broad stepped down as ceo and turned his attention to philanthropy.
Broad and his wife had created a family foundation in the 1960s as a way to support their charitable interests and causes. But with their financial success from the sale of SunAmerica, the Broads focused their charitable giving on a new style of investing that was more akin to their business acumen: venture philanthropy.
Today, The Broad Foundations, which include The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and The Broad Art Foundation, have assets of $2.1 billion. Their mission is to advance entrepreneur-ship for the public good in education, science and the arts.
18 | California School Business
Eli BroadPhilathropist works to improve public education through better governance, management, competition
The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation’s major education initiatives include the $2 million Broad Prize for Urban Educa-tion, awarded each year to urban school districts that have made the greatest overall performance and improvement in student achievement; The Broad Superintendents Academy, a 10-month executive management training program to prepare working ceos and other top executives from business, nonprofit, military, government and education backgrounds to lead urban public ed-ucation; and The Broad Residency in Urban Education, a two-year management development program that trains recent business, public policy and law school graduates who have several years of work experience and places them immediately into managerial positions in the central operations of urban school districts.
The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation also invests in ad-vancing innovative scientific and medical research through its investments in human genomics, stem cell research and inflam-matory bowel disease. They have created a number of research institutes in partnership with leading universities in California and Massachusetts.
From 2004 to 2009, Broad served as a regent of the Smith-sonian Institution by appointment of the u.s. Congress and the president. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1994 was named chevalier in the National Order of the Legion of Honor by the Republic of France. In fall 2007, Broad received the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy. He received the David Rockefeller Award from the Museum of Modern Art in March 2009.
The Broads live in Los Angeles and have two adult sons.Here’s what Broad had to say to casbo about his personal life and his goal of improving urban k-12 public education through better governance, management, labor relations and competition. CSB: What three things are essential to your life?Broad: I have been fortunate to have four “careers” – in accounting, home building, retirement savings and now philanthropy. I am an entrepreneur by nature, and in each of these careers, I have been driven to disrupt the status quo. I always want to create new things, institutions, programs or improve the ones that exist. I want to make a difference in everything I do. Our family has been blessed with financial success, and we believe that we have a responsibility to give back. I believe in what Andrew Carnegie said, “He who dies with wealth dies in shame.” I want to use our resources to make a difference. In home building, I wanted to create affordable housing for young families. In retirement savings, I wanted to create financial products that helped baby boomers enjoy a comfortable retirement. And now in philanthropy, our work in public education is driven by the desire to improve student achievement and reduce achievement
gaps. In scientific and medical research, we want to improve the human condition. And in the arts, we want to make art accessible to the broadest public.
In everything I have done in my life, I have had high ex-pectations. In our philanthropy, we don’t just write checks. We view our grants as investments, and we expect a return in the form of higher student achievement. It’s much harder to invest philanthropic dollars wisely than it is to earn it. But I can tell you that I’m working harder now at our foundations than when I was running two Fortune 500 companies. And I’m having infinitely more fun.
Finally, nothing would matter without my family. My wife, Edythe, and I just celebrated our 55th wedding anniversary. I consider our marriage my most important merger.
CSB: What is the best advice you have ever given?Broad: Ideas, not money, are the currency for success.
CSB: What is the last book you read?Broad: “Too Big to Fail,” by Andrew Ross Sorkin.
CSB: What drives you to be active in public education? Overall, what do you want to see happen as a result of your involvement?Broad: America’s public schools are in crisis. More than 1 million students drop out of high school every year. American students lag far behind students in other nations – those who American children will compete with for jobs. We need to dramatically improve our public schools through strong academic standards, professional compensation for teachers – especially math and science teachers and those who teach in the highest-need areas – more school choice in the form of public charter schools and expanded learning time so our students have a fair chance of competing in a global economy.
CSB: You are one of the most successful people in California. To whom or to what can you give credit for influencing your success?Broad: I have been influenced by many people, but the three most important influencers have been my parents, who instilled in me the value of hard work, education and a responsibility for giving back; the quality public schools I attended growing up in Detroit and then Michigan State University; and the talented, smart, high-achieving people I have surrounded myself with throughout the years.
CSB: You mention that your parents and top-quality public schools were a couple of your key influencers. What would you tell today’s urban schoolchildren about their ability to succeed?
continued on page 20
20 | California School Business
Broad: My parents did not have much, but they believed in the importance of education. It was always a given that I would attend college. The great public schools I attended in Detroit and at Michigan State University made it possible for me to succeed. I am very concerned that far too many American students today – particularly poor and minority students – are being denied a quality education and their shot at the American dream.
Children of all backgrounds have the ability to succeed academically. I am tired of hearing excuses for low achievement. Top-performing urban public schools like the kipp public charter schools and school districts like Long Beach, one of the most improved school districts in the country over the last decade, are proving that with smart strategies and high expectations for all students, it is possible to lift poor children up by leaps and bounds academically. Entire school systems need to learn from their success.
CSB: Your Broad Superintendents Academy trains executives from private business, nonprofits, the military and government backgrounds to lead urban school systems. What are some of the benefits of going outside the school industry to recruit and train new leadership?
Broad: More and more school boards and communities are recognizing that while quality teachers are the most important lever to improve student learning, strong, effective and experienced school district leaders can make an enormous difference in ensuring that taxpayer dollars position teachers and students to achieve. Frankly, we need America’s best and brightest leaders – from all professional backgrounds, including the private sector – to step up and transform troubled school districts into strong public organizations that produce results.
We are proud that 43 percent of superintendent openings in large urban school districts nationwide last year were filled by graduates of The Broad Superintendents Academy. But most importantly, our superintendents who have been in place for three years or more are consistently improving student achieve-ment in reading and math faster than their peers. They are in-stituting financial controls, using data to drive improvements, utilizing technology to become more efficient, empowering staff, recruiting high-quality teachers and getting resources into the classroom to directly benefit students.
As your readers know, large school districts are entrusted with millions, sometimes billions, of public tax dollars. Busi-
Eli BroadPhilathropist works to improve public education through better governance, management, competition
continued from page 18
Spring 2010 | 21
ness leaders can bring the skill and expertise to make sure that school district resources are properly tracked, accounted for and spent in the best way possible to raise student achievement. Of course, they also need top academic experts on their team. Joel Klein, a former ceo and u.s. assistant attorney general, has done this well in New York City. Under his leadership, the New York City Department of Education demonstrated some of the greatest student performance and improvement nationwide in recent years.
But perhaps no other school district has a more compelling leadership story right now than my home town of Detroit. Last year, the governor of Michigan appointed a graduate of the Broad Superintendents Academy, Robert Bobb, a smart former city manager with great business sense, to be Detroit Public Schools’ emergency financial manager. Within months, Bobb identified millions of school district dollars that had been squan-dered for years on unbelievable things like unused motorcycles and paychecks to the deceased. It took Bobb – a nontraditional, state-appointed leader – to perform the financial audits neces-sary to begin identifying leaks and clean up corruption. Now Bobb is focused on getting trustworthy financial systems in place
that will free up dollars to hire and keep great teachers and keep children in school learning.
CSB: The Broad Institute for School Boards is a national training and support program for urban school district governance teams, board members and superintendents. The program targets “reform-minded” school board-superintendent teams to establish new policies and processes. What is your vision for how this program can improve student learning?Broad: The question is really how can students benefit when their school district is overseen by a strong, strategic governance structure, and what does that look like? If you look at the most improved urban school districts in America in the last 10 years, Broad Prize winners New York, Boston, Long Beach, Garden Grove, Calif., Aldine, Texas, and Norfolk, Va., they all have a common element. Their governance structures are stable and strategic. By this I mean their strategy for raising student achievement is either overseen by a strong mayor whom voters can hold accountable for student results, or by a stable school board whose members keep district staff and resources focused on student achievement.
22 | California School Business
Eli BroadPhilathropist works to improve public education through better governance, management, competition
Unfortunately, far too many urban school boards, although well intentioned, are today riddled with finger-pointing, pa-tronage and political infighting. The effect is that urban school leaders, resources and staff are often sent reeling in numerous, disparate and inconsistent policy directions, while student achievement fails to improve. Simply put, adult interests are too often put ahead of the well-being of children.
With training, some school boards like Gwinnett County, Ga., have shown progress in coming together to commit to a strategic plan that puts students first. But because very few vot-ers turn out for most school board elections, I believe the best governance solution for students to succeed is for mayors to take responsibility for their schools.
Far more people vote in mayoral elections, and voters are much more likely to remove the mayor than to remove school board members – or even know their names – if they do not deliver results. Mayors are subject to many more governmen-tal checks and balances at the state and federal level than are school boards. Mayors, who have far more stable terms, are best positioned to make education a citywide priority and make sure that parents receive accurate information about the quality of
their schools. Researchers have found that when a mayor is in charge, the federal government and others increase their finan-cial support of schools. But what’s been most persuasive to me is research shows that mayoral leadership in education is clearly related to improved standardized elementary reading and math achievement, even after controlling for a host of demographic background variables.
CSB: What would you say are the key reforms needed to improve California’s schools? Broad: In addition to what we have already discussed, I thinka number of things have to happen before we see real im-provements in California’s urban schools.
At the central office level, managers can free up funds to pay the best teachers the most and to put more resources toward proven reforms like expanding learning time. You may wonder how I can fairly suggest that central offices “free up” funds when so many districts have been forced to make drastic cuts recently. Yet in the last year, some school districts, like Miami-Dade County Public Schools, have made major financial gains by identifying untapped efficiencies. Through our Broad Residency program, which places mbas and others with experience helping large organizations operate more effi-ciently and effectively into school districts, more than 100 Broad Residents have squeezed millions of dollars out of thin air by doing things like renegotiating contracts, reducing interest rates on borrowed capital, increasing vendor competition, eliminat-ing central-office redundancies and benchmarking operations against other districts.
I also think the time is ripe for California to open our doors wide to high-quality, proven public charter school models like Aspire, Green Dot and the Alliance for College Ready Public Schools. Our foundation has invested more than $90 million in high quality public charter school models because we believe they provide the best opportunity for poor and minority stu-dents to succeed.
I also hope that reform-minded labor leaders who are interested in participating in the bold transformation of public education will step forward in the near future and help craft district-wide reform strategies that create more professional working conditions, empowering teachers and students to suc-ceed. This would be revolutionary. z z z
Julie Phillips Randles is a freelance writer based in Roseville, Calif.
Do you have an opinion or a comment on this article? CaliforniaSchoolBusinessmagazinewelcomes “Letters to the Editor.” Please send your letters to [email protected]. All lettersare edited for content, space and style considerations.
24 | California School Business
Spring 2010 | 25* Set up an account or log in at http://twitter.com
feature
Making the connectionSocial networking:A new communicationstool for schools
By Linda A. Estep
Embraced by many, scorned by some
and misunderstood or ignored
by everyone else, electronic social networking permeates both personal and professional cultures, dishing out bite-sized pieces of information to a growing number of faithful followers.
Like it or not, we live in a world of instant connectivity, a digital universe propelled by digits of a human kind as thumbs and forefingers dance across a keyboard to enlighten someone – anyone – out there. For school business leaders and their captains of communication, it gives new meaning to the ubiquitous query, “What are you doing?”
Heather Dority, chief executive of-ficer of Viaspire and casbo’s technol-ogy consultant, specializes in the use of social media and explains the difference between communication tools commonly used 10 years ago.
“We are in a new era of technology, how we use it and how we participate. We are empowered to do things differ-ently and it is available to more and more people. The Social Web allows an ongoing conversation with more dynamic and diverse interactions in real-time.”
State Superintendent of Public Edu-cation Jack O’Connell “tweets” regularly on Twitter, pumping out short messages
about his daily itinerary or announce-ments, often with a referring link for the complete story. Anyone with a computer or smart phone can access Twitter and become an O’Connell follower by going to http://twitter.com/sspijack.*
In his news release last summer announcing his accessibility via Twitter, O’Connell said, “Technology is helping break down the barriers between govern-ment and the people.”
Many school districts and county of-fices across the country seem to agree and are examining the opportunities afforded by social media to deliver instantaneous messages, knowing that a segment of their targeted audiences are regular users of online social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Reaching that seg-ment opens avenues to other audiences as those short messages or postings are shared.
A new frontier
In California, the interest in social media tools used by school officials is growing, as indicated by the California School Public Relations Association’s November 2009 conference where members heard from experts on how to use social media tools in their jobs as communications
professionals. The conference also offered a workshop on the development of social media policies.
At casbo’s cbo Symposium last fall, attendees listened attentively as Dority outlined the possibilities of how social media use can be implemented in educa-tion as a supplemental opportunity to reach audiences.
“It used to be (an environnment) where everyone went to a Web site for information. Now there are ways to inter-act, participate and collaborate via social media and inherently gain more reach,” Dority explained.
Dority stressed that this is the era of opportunity where the exploration cen-ters on how to use social media efficiently with cost effectiveness and sustainability. With Twitter and Facebook, the opportu-nity is there for creating awareness and providing a community forum for com-ments and conversation. She recognizes that with anything new, keeping it going can be an issue in times where resources are limited. Someone must maintain and manage the flow of information.
“For some districts, Twitter as a quick communications tool is ideal be-cause parents in the district are equipped with Internet-enabled tools: cell phones, laptops, computers at home and in the
26 | California School Business
workplace. Twitter has become just an-other Internet service to subscribe to. But for other districts where the community is underprivileged, there is a disadvantage because the parents and students are not equally equipped with the latest technol-ogy. There is a digital divide,” she said.
It is a new frontier with eager explor-ers in search of yet another route to find and provide information – and it’s a cost-efficient one to boot.
Public and internal uses
In the Riverside Unified School District, Superintendent and casbo member Rick Miller uses a blog on the district’s Web site to keep parents and other interested parties informed. While he has a Twitter account, its use is primarily
for a professional exchange between colleagues.
He said his blog came about after a group discussion on transparency and the ability to explain to people what you are thinking. “I’m shocked at how many people pay attention to blogs.” He added that the link to his blog is often provided by other administrators who want to share the superintendent’s message. Miller writes a daily blog on topics rang-ing from the lessons of a football game to digital textbooks.
In the Stanislaus County Office of Education, Superintendent and casbo member Tom Changnon uses Twitter as a means to communicate with employees.
Steve Clemons is the chief technol-ogy officer at the San Diego County Of-fice of Education, a casbo institutional
member, and sees the new social media tools evolving much in the same way as e-mail did a generation ago. Although Twitter and Facebook are not used at the county office, Clemons said he has seen “some creative uses of Twitter in govern-ment.” He agreed that Twitter is a viable tool between schools and parents.
Workday distraction? While communications directors and technology specialists count the ways social media can be used to broaden the reach of districts and county offices, human resources administrators grapple with the impact of social media and personal usage on work time. Even when sites such as Twitter or Facebook are blocked on the workplace network,
Making the connection
Spring 2010 | 27
WHAT IS TWITTER?
With all this talk about Twitter and “tweets,”
there are still some of us who don’t know
exactly what all the chirping’s about.
Twitter is a free social networking and
micro-blogging service that allows users
to send and read 140-character messages
called “tweets.” These short messages can
be viewed by “followers” (friends, family,
colleagues or the Web community at large).
The short text messages Twitter users post
are designed to answer the question, “What
are you doing?”
Users can follow Twitter community mem-
bers’ posts from the Twitter Web site, by
subscribing to a Twitter feed or by having
posts sent directly to a mobile device.
“Twitter uses the concept of information
pull,” noted Greg Blount, director, informa-
tion services, for the Merced City Elemen-
tary School District and chair of CASBO’s
Technology R&D Committee. “You have to
be interested in the topic, trend or person
and go get it or subscribe to it to get it. The
user initiates it. E-mail is a ‘push’ technology
– it shoves things at you even if you don’t
want them.”
The short format of Twitter messages are a
defining characteristic of the service – the
idea being that this form of quick informa-
tion exchange provides relief from unwanted
e-mail and instant messages.
Twitter was created in 2006 and is now
ranked as one of the 50 most popular Web
sites worldwide.
You can follow CASBO on Twitter at http://
twitter.com/CASBO.
small personal devices can easily access social media and be a distraction during the normal workday.
Just as policies cover use of e-mail for personal reasons during work hours, hr administrators recognize that a new level of communication is attractive to many employees, some of whom will expect its use to be extended to legitimate school business.
“Twitter and Facebook do have a practical use for school business,” con-ceded Michelle Fort-Merrill, executive director, human resources, San Diego
County Office of Education and casbo’s Membership Implementation Team leader for the current strategic plan. “I can re-member when we had the same questions about e-mail. I do see new technologies having business implications. The gen-erations we are hiring will expect its use. It is creating efficiencies, hands down, but can be intrusive without proper manage-ment with policies and training.”
casbo Human Resources r&d Chair Jan Brannen concurs that younger employees are more likely to embrace newer social networking, while veteran employees are often reticent. “Our new hires are used to using electronic sites. It’s natural to them and is their common tool for communication,” said Brannen, director of human resources for the San Diego County Office of Education.
In the Huntington Beach Union High School District, Trish Landau, director of human resources, classified, said there are no plans to implement Facebook as a communication tool for school busi-ness. E-mail and a listserv system are the standard means of employee commu-nication, and an automated phone dial-ing program for emergency notification works well for the district.
“Until evidence comes in that says most parents have access to Facebook, we would continue to use the phone,” said Landau, a member of casbo’s Strategic Planning Team and former chair of the state Human Resources r&d Committee and the Eastern Section Human Resourc-es r&d Committee.
Those districts that do utilize newer technology as communication tools use them as a complement to more traditional communication vehicles, often hoping to attract new audiences. And in the case of Twitter, ultra-short messages can act as a “tease” to a bigger story found in the hyperlink following the “tweet.”
Enhancing convention
While some districts have jumped on the social networking bandwagon as a way to enhance conventional communication methods, others are relying on existing systems, anticipating that the wheels might just fall off the wagon, or that the wagon is a vehicle of duplication.
Pat Willett, community liaison officer at the William S. Hart Union High School District in Santa Clarita, Los Angeles County, manages her district’s Twitter account and routinely puts out “tweets” or short messages relevant to district business or activities. She sees value in using a non-traditional communication tool like Twitter to transmit messages and be highly inclusive.
TECHNOLOGY IS HELPING BREAK DOWN THE BARRIERS BETWEEN GOVERNMENT AND THE PEOPLE.
28 | California School Business
Launched last summer, she said it was particularly helpful when possible school evacuations were a concern due to nearby fires. Willett uses Twitter pri-marily as a means to announce upcom-ing events or share news that affects the
district. Messages are often informal and upbeat, written within the confines of 140 characters, the maximum allowed on Twitter. Links for more complete in-formation often are provided.
Willett noted that the account has a growing number of followers, includ-ing city agencies, elected officials and other school districts nearby. “It’s just onemore way to get the word out,” she said. The more traditional uses of an automat-ed phone notification system and masse-mails are in place as well, but Twitteris a quick means of letting interested par-ties stay abreast of what is happening in the district.
At the Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District, Gordon Medd, assistant superintendent, administrative services, and a member of casbo’s Governance Implementation Team, said the district prefers using an instant alert system that
sends automated messages to parents’ home phones, mobile phones and e-mail accounts to using social networking sites that have a commercial connotation.
Knowing your audience is also key, he noted, acknowledging that districts seeking to contact high school-age stu-dents or alumni might be more open to social networking sites, while k-8 districts focus on parent contact. “Our re-sponsibility is communicating to parents, so we have to be careful that we don’t forgo our responsibility to the parents in lieu of the convenience of communicating with kids using Twitter.”
Medd sees social media as “just an-other method to do exactly what we’re already doing” by committing to an instant alert system that is only used for significant events. “I’m not so certain that Facebook is going to do anything better than that.”
The San Juan Unified School District has launched both Twitter and Facebook accounts, although quietly at first in order to gauge effectiveness. Director of Com-munications Trent Allen explained that his district has a very diverse population and that the number of those using social media tools is increasing.
As a result of establishing a Twitter account, Allen noted the district found an audience it would not have reached without it. Recent graduates and alumni of a district school learned on Twitter about a gymnasium to be dedicated to the memory of a deceased coach and conse-quently responded to an open invitation to attend the ceremony.
“That’s an audience we didn’t know to send an invitation to,” he said.
While Twitter is seen as attractive to a mostly younger generation, Allen noted that those following on Facebook are baby boomers, and the numbers are growing. Either way, the district is reach-
ing audiences that more conventional methods of communication missed. Con-vention is not being replaced, it is being enhanced.
He sees Twitter as an ideal tool for crisis communication. “I can be at a scene and manage the message by sending out updates,” he said. Allen added that the ability to diffuse or refute rumors was a distinct advantage during emergencies.
CASBO explores thesocial networking arena
Associations, including casbo, are also entering the social networking arena as another way to help members stay informed of the association’s actions and positions, and to develop a network of people who are involved with the same issues.
While a 2009 survey of casbo mem-bers indicated that respondents showed some uncertainty about participating in social networking sites in general, the as-sociation has begun a soft launch, starting with the use of Twitter, and is establishing in-house guidelines on the appropriate use of social media by staff.
Current trends indicate social media usage is increasing among the general population, and especially among the younger demographic. It’s this younger age group that many associations, includ-ing casbo, must attract in order to main-tain membership levels and participation in the future. Doing this – attracting and keeping younger members – is an un-dergirding element of casbo’s strategic plan. While the current data indicates that there is not a huge demand for social networking among responding mem-bers, there is overwhelming evidence to show that a growing number are using it (regardless of age) and that association
Making the connection
CONVENTION IS NOT BEING REPLACED, IT’S BEING ENHANCED.
continued on page 30
30 | California School Business
members of the future will have an in-creased likelihood to do so.
“Given that networking is a key ac-tivity within, and an important benefit of, membership in casbo, we want to make sure we’re embracing new technologies on behalf of our members,” explained casbo President Sharon Ketcherside of the Sacramento County Office of Education.
Dority, casbo’s technology consul-tant, adds, “Social media presents sev-eral compelling opportunities for casbo to take advantage of for the California school business community. Social tools offered, like casbo on Twitter, are being positioned to help members connect in professional learning networks. Social media tools are a natural and highly effec-tive opportunity for casbo to continually explore and leverage in the future.”
You can follow casbo on Twitter at http://twitter.com/casbo.
Newbies and natives
There is much written about the “needs” of those engaged in social networking, the desire to be connected and sometimes the addiction to such connection, but for many it is simply a way of life, an environment that is not new but native. Connecting on the Internet or via hand-held devices with wireless capability is as natural to them as picking up a telephone was to generations before them.
Readers are beckoned to follow, to become “fans” or “friends” by mer-chants, elected officials, celebrities, charities and cruise lines. Education is no different, and if there is a channel to
reach audiences where others have failed or had limited success, the digital natives will find it and use it.
Just like e-mail before it, the new social networking technology appears to have a hold on a growing segment of the population, and its use, when applied responsibly, might just revolutionize the way school industry leaders conduct business.
Viaspire’s Dority understands the concerns of department heads still un-convinced there is a place for social media in the workplace. “Explore the potential,” she urged. “The policies and practices will follow.” z z z
Linda A. Estep is a freelance writer based in Fresno, Calif.
Making the connectioncontinued from page 28
Spring 2010 | 31
Are you missing revenue opportunities?
Attention2Attendance®
DECREASE DROPOUT RATES ∙ INCREASE ADA ∙ MAXIMIZE REVENUE
877.954.4357 ∙ [email protected]
32 | California School Business
Spring 2010 | 33
cover
magine the national economy as a hospital trauma unit patient. At the end of 2009, the patient was in the recovery room and out of imminent danger. The bleeding had stopped, but the patient remained anemic and was listed in serious condition.
Such is the assessment of economic experts who say the patient, known as The Great Recession, is out of the woods and has begun a fragile recovery. The economy is growing (sparsely), layoffs have slowed, wage growth is slight and credit is tight.
But if all agree the patient is improving, when will the patient be on his feet again work-ing hard enough to provide a payday for California’s public school system?
That’s where the prognosis gets iffy. But a look at the national economy, California’s place in the recovery and what’s expected in the coming year begins to yield a clearer pic-ture of the patient’s overall health.
Beyond-the-
RecessionAre better times ahead for
public education?
By Julie Phillips Randles
I
34 | California School Business
Evidence of improvement
The Great Recession officially began in December 2007 and was the deepest economic downturn since the recession of 1981-82, according to Nancy D. Sidhu, chief economist at the Kyser Center for Economic Research and a frequent speaker at casbo’s cbo Symposium. “It looks for the moment that the economy has stopped falling. We’re still near the bottom in terms of the level of activity, but we’re moving in the right direction,” Sidhu said.
What’s not clear is whether this will be anything more than a slow recovery “largely because there won’t be money to borrow, and that could take some time,” she added.
Sidhu is also keeping her eye on consumer spending, es-pecially such key products as vehicles, furniture, appliances and building materials, all of which have been in decline in the past year. Having said that, u.s. data shows retails sales were at their worst at the end of 2008, were flat until the summer of 2009 and have since been slowly rising. “So that’s promising,” said Sidhu.
Richard C. O’Sullivan, principal at Change Management So-lutions in Maryland and a speaker at asbo International’s 2008 economic summit, agrees that the economy is in recovery mode and said “the evidence of that is the turnaround in employment and household savings.”
As to the show-me indicators: “My rejoinder to those who say ‘look at indicators we’ve always looked at – those haven’t turned yet’ I say you’ve missed the point. This recovery is going to be different.
“The national economy today is in transition from an economy driven by short-term consumer demand to (one driven by) long-term investment both by retiring baby boomers and businesses,” O’Sullivan summed up.
Overall, the experts say the country’s in for modest eco-nomic growth in 2010. Sidhu referred to the current economy as “freshly off the bottom,” adding “there are always glimmers of hope, but that’s about all there are.”
The case in California
A report from the Pew Center on the States, an independent nonprofit group that identifies and advances state policy solutions, calls California “a case study in financial mismanagement.” Quotes like that – and the added assessment by Pew that that state is on the path to virtual insolvency – begs the question, where does California stand in the case for recovery?
O’Sullivan says California is “pretty far behind” the rest of the nation in terms of feeling an economic uptick.
Beyond the Recession
“It looks to me as if the recovery which begins in 2010 in economic activity suggests that revenue into the state won’t start growing until fiscal 2010-11, and that’s making some heroic as-sumptions,” Sidhu said.
The state’s non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office has said the state was down $6.3 billion in 2009 and predicted a $14.4 billion budget gap in fiscal 2010-11. Translation – the state will be strapped for several years, even after the economy recovers.
On paper, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget plan released in January funds schools at about the same level this year and the following year. However, the proposal includes
$1.7 billion in cuts to revenue limits, about $283 per ada and a $45 million cut to county offices of education. The governor also plans to delay about $100 million in payments owed to schools in 2010-11. Previous areas of flexibility granted last year will continue through 2012-13.
Dennis Meyers, principal economist at the California De-partment of Finance, predicted a drawn-out recovery in the state. “For schools, in the next two years, we’re looking forward to a modest recovery and getting back to what you might call ‘nor-mal growth’ in mid to late 2011-12. For California, you have the unemployment rate being somewhat elevated through 2012. It’s going to be a while before we get back to what we were seeing four or five years ago. It’s not going to be a quick turnaround like 2001-02.”
Joel Montero, chief executive officer for the Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team (fcmat), points to the lao report which predicts “positive movement” for the state’s economy in the third quarter of 2010. “Watch the sales and use tax as an indi-cator for the state. When it gets positive, that’s an indication that people are putting money back in the economy,” Montero noted.
But with talk of a recovery underway, some question whether schools’ stakeholders understand the depth of recent cuts and the lag that’s inherent in improved funding to schools.
continued on page 36
Revenue into the state won’t start growing until fiscal 2010-11, and that’s making some heroic assumptions.
36 | California School Business
“My concern is that the general public doesn’t realize how bad it is,” explained Renee Hendrick, director, business services, for the Orange County Department of Education and president-elect of casbo. “Education was cut 20 percent in one year and because we tried to keep it away from the classroom, I don’t think parents noticed.”
Fueling the recovery
While experts are on the same page, most predicting a sluggish recovery, they offer various indicators that prove a recovery is underway.
Sidhu refers to her “two-minute drill” of indicators for proof that the freefall has stopped and recovery is at hand. The stock market thinks the recovery is at hand, and the market always leads an upturn. Segments of the housing market have also turned up, Sidhu noted, but those improvements “could stop on a dime.” Sales of existing homes have been pretty strong for nearly a year and the supply of foreclosed homes entering the marketplace appears to have slowed. Median home prices are edging up and consumer spending is beginning a slow ascent.
O’Sullivan couches his evidence for improvement in terms of economic drivers. “This isn’t the type of recession where you were knocked down and you stand up and dust yourself off. There’s been a shift in the fundamental drivers of the economy,” O’Sullivan said.
He indicated that the drivers that have been in place – retail sales, housing and financial services – slowed faster than the new drivers could ramp up. The new drivers – which he identi-fies as health care, green technologies and adult education – are more capital intensive and less labor intensive, but they are driving a recovery nonetheless. While they create fewer jobs
Beyond the Recessioncontinued from page 34
Our concern is that even if the economy is better, we’re not going to see the effects fast enough.
Spring 2010 | 37
than the sectors that are laying off, the jobs that are created are higher paying.
Proof positive that the economy is getting better, according to O’Sullivan, will be an increase in business investment, growth from exports and government spending.
Silver linings
Finding a silver lining in an economy that decimated school district budgets may be a long shot, but our experts gave it a try, identifying a few ways that the school industry may have benefited – at least a little – from the recession.
Sidhu likened the crisis to a good rain shower that leaves the streets clean and washes away the grunge, but conceded there is not much of an upside for schools.
“On the purchasing side there are some opportunities be-cause vendors are struggling and might be willing to cut prices,” Sidhu said. And competition for the handful of school con-struction projects planned might also benefit districts by way of tight bidding. “This is a period in the cycle when they can do a little judicious spending and prices will be lower.”
Experts predict whenschools will benefit from current recovery CASBO asked a number of experts in education funding to weigh in on
when the apparent national economic recovery would begin to benefit
public school funding in California. Here are their predictions:
Prediction: 2012-13
Ken Hall, founder, School Services of California, executive
in residence at the University of Southern California
“California is beginning to turn around. I think economically we have en-
countered the bottom, but unfortunately, we have a long way to go before
it impacts public education. There are a couple of indicators educators
can look for. One is housing starts and housing prices. That indicator,
if it begins to turn around more substantially, means more property tax
revenues – so watch for property tax assessment increases. If you see a
substantive increase, you can figure education increases are around the
corner. The 2010 budget hopefully will be a constant to the current dollar
levels and 2011 would have a slight growth to it. It will be the 2012-13
budget before it’s to the pre-recession levels.”
Prediction: 2012-13
Joel Montero, chief executive officer, Fiscal Crisis
& Management Assistance Team (FCMAT)
“If the state as a whole were to improve starting today, the translation to
education will lag by 12 to 18 months. Watch sales and use tax as an
indicator. When it gets positive, that’s indication that people are putting
money back in the economy. The earliest we would ever see a funded
COLA would be 2011-12, more likely is 2012-13, and even then it will
be small and will not cover the loss that will have occurred in the previ-
ous two or three years.”
Prediction: 2014-15
John Mockler, president, John B. Mockler and Associates,
a consulting firm specializing in education policy and finance
“The only thing that will hold us up will be the Maintenance of Effort
(MOE). In general, revenue is a problem when we lower taxes the year
after next. We have reduced the percent of our income that we pay in
taxes each of the last four years. Recall that in order to get the budget
passed one year, they reduced business taxes, and that kicks in next
year. There are a lot of time bombs that kick in.”
Prediction: 2012-13
Don Zimring, superintendent,
Las Virgenes Unified School District
“I think the economic recovery has clearly begun and we’ll start seeing
some additional revenues to the state. The state will be under incredible
pressure to give something back; to start rebuilding what they have
dismantled. We’ll start to see some basic payback in three years.”
– J.P.R.
38 | California School Business
Montero noted the difficulty in finding an upside due to the fact that in an 18-month period, nearly $1,700 per student was lost.
The potential bright spots he has heard suggested are that “education fared better than other industries,” and that the fund-ing crisis forced efficiencies.
“The angle I’ve heard is that one of the things this has done is created the requirement for every single district to look at every single expenditure and operate more efficiently,” Montero said. “You could argue that 50 percent (of districts) aren’t in trouble in that they prepared themselves better or made themselves more efficient, and you could argue that’s a collateral advantage.”
casbo’s Hendrick addressed the silver lining concept by noting that the national recession and California’s ongoing bud-get crisis may have pushed the state’s education system closer to reform. “There is talk about redoing the finance formulas for schools to make it more stable. I know there’s been talk about it for years, but maybe now is the time to really talk about that,” Hendrick said.
A sense of “unified concern” also has emerged among groups that are often at odds, even those who meet at the bar-gaining table. “The unions are being more cooperative than in
the past,” noted Hendrick, adding that some unions are coming to the table seeking multiyear agreements, in some cases with no salary increase.
When will schools benefit?
So just when will the alleged uptick trickle down to schools in the way of improved funding?
“I’m suggesting that if money from property taxes is going to be down and stay down for a long time, given the low level of household formations that drives housing, we aren’t going to see a return to pre-2008 housing levels for five years nationwide,” O’Sullivan said.
Beyond the Recession
continued on page 40
School leaders certainly have their work – make that more work – cut out for them.
40 | California School Business
By that time, baby boomers will have begun retiring in larger numbers, which causes O’Sullivan to question whether the 40 percent funding level inherent in Proposition 98 can be supported.
“If I were in California schools I would say, ‘Is that number defensible and where else are we going to get the money?’ I would say that would be public-private partnerships and school business officials becoming more entrepreneurial.”
Sidhu relies on basic economic principles to make her pre-diction for improved funding for schools. “Until banks get fixed and homes start selling and are filled again, it will not get better for school districts,” Sidhu said.
Montero’s estimate for improvement is 2012-13, after an even tougher 2010-11 budget year due to the loss of federal stabilization money.
casbo’s Hendrick noted that the state’s schools won’t ben-efit from the recovery until months after it’s in full swing – likely 18 to 24 months after the significant improvement anticipated for late 2010.
Add to that the impending end of a temporary sales tax in-crease set to expire this spring and the potential for deferrals that
were one-time fixes to also disappear, and the lag in improved funding is extended.
“Our concern is that even if the economy is better, we’re not going to see the effects fast enough,” Hendrick said.
In the meantime
Given the expected slow pace of the economic uptick, improvements to the economy won’t translate into improved school funding any time soon, meaning school leaders certainly have their work – make that more work – cut out for them.
That’s where O’Sullivan’s suggestion for entrepreneurship and partnering comes in. “Money will not come from local tax sources but from state, federal or private sector economic devel-opment,” he predicts.
Schools should consider tapping new funding sources by watching the direction in which the economy is moving and beginning to serve those needs. “What we’re talking about is public education going back to its roots,” he said. That includes getting businesses more engaged and ensuring that schools are responsive to business needs.
Beyond the Recessioncontinued from page 38
Spring 2010 | 41
This type of partnering – essentially schools being respon-sive to the labor market – might emerge as a key, yet currently untapped, new funding source for schools.
Other opportunities some districts have begun to consider, according to Montero, are additional general obligation bonds to fund facilities locally and, on the program side, studies of parcel taxes.
He questions the real capacity for local communities and businesses to make up the shortfalls schools are experiencing,
Schools should consider tapping new funding sources by watching the direction in which the economy is moving and beginning to serve those needs.
which would essentially mean either asking taxpayers to carry a larger part of the burden or convincing corporations to do so.
But O’Sullivan contends there are opportunities. “It might be 5 percent of your budget now, but in the short run, it may be 100 percent of your growth,” he noted. z z z
Julie Phillips Randles is a freelance writer based in Roseville, Calif.
Do you have an opinion or a comment on this article? CaliforniaSchoolBusinessmagazinewelcomes “Letters to the Editor.” Please send your letters to [email protected]. All lettersare edited for content, space and style considerations.
42 | California School Business
Spring 2010 | 43
feature
By Julie Sturgeon
Recent research shows that a majority of private companies fear losing high-
performing employees in a recession-induced talent war. In better times, such might also be the case in the school industry, but a lack of job openings and increased responsibilities instead have school business leaders wondering how to keep the talent they have on hand motivated, productive, and, frivolous as it might sound, happy.
A mass exodus of talented employees isn’t what concerns Gary Matsumoto today. As the as-sociate superintendent of business services for Hacienda La Puente Unified School District in the San Gabriel Valley, he sees industry in his area hurting, and surrounding school districts laying off employees. He received more than 300 applications for a custodial position. “Our employees
Cultivating commitment How to keep top-notch employees
44 | California School Business
tend to stick around, but where would they go anyway?” asked Matsumoto, who serves as vice president of casbo.
Ditto for Donald Zimring’s experience as superintendent at Las Virgenes Unified School District in Calabasas. “The sticking around part isn’t the critical issue,” said Zimring, a past chair of casbo’s Professional Certification Committee and a member of the association’s Professional Development Committee. “The critical issue is how do you keep them happy, keep them commit-ted to serving kids?”
That’s precisely the question Anne Bruce, a speaker at casbo’s new Guest Lecture Series Luncheons at the upcoming annual conference and author of “Discover True North” and “Be Your Own Mentor,” said employers should always ask, but it took a recession to call attention to this shift. “In the past, we concentrated on how to keep good employees from going to the competitor - and as a result, we lost good people. Employees do not leave companies, they leave bosses and leadership. So going into 2010, successful organizations do not focus on people retention,” she said, “because adults are going to do exactly what they want to do. But focus on developing people, and the byproduct is that they stay.”
Bruce labels it a paradigm shift, and it’s a particularly powerful concept for schools to grasp.Indeed, a few years ago turnover at Hacienda La Puente was fairly high because neighboring
districts paid more, Matsumoto admitted. Even he left for greener financial pastures. Today, many of those “former” employees are back in the fold. “It wasn’t about the money. It was also that they liked working here because they felt appreciated,” he noted.
First steps
The foundation of Bruce’s recommended approach is to stop expecting everyone to hit the same bar, and instead use tools that motivate individuals to a higher level of performance. And how do you discover this secret for thousands of people on the payroll? Ask them. She even has a worksheet with 20 common drivers listed for a multiple-choice response: respect, a chance to grow, being part of a team, getting along with people, clear expectations, praise, promotions, empowerment, responsibility – and, yes, money.
“And once in a blue moon, out of thousands of people, I will have someone select that,” said Bruce. “But rarely is compensation the reason we get out of bed and spend 10 hours on the job giving the best of ourselves.”
After determining what motivates individual employees, make sure immediate supervisors have this information for their team, and let the relationship building begin. It looks like this:
Say an employee wants to purchase a new product she believes could make her job easier. The manager’s natural response is “that’s not in the budget.” Yet instead of repeating the expected dialogue, address the employee’s motivation points. For instance, if creativity is her push button, challenge her to find ways to bring that same strategy into the workplace, even on a shoestring or non-existent budget. If she is money driven, challenge her to come up with the money by saving somewhere else in the budget.
The idea is not telling, but rather guiding the employee. “You don’t learn anything when you’re being told,” said Bruce.
For the past 26 years, every new hire at Las Virgenes steps on a school bus with the superin-tendent as part of their orientation and tours the district. “We talk about where the students come
continued on page 46
Cultivating commitment
Employees do not leave companies, they leave
bosses and leadership.
46 | California School Business
from, show them the schools they attend, because we don’t want employees to think they work at a place,” said Zimring. “They serve children and we want to show that tie whenever we can.”
Generational divide
The recession is peeling back the façade to reveal a second layer to this challenge of keeping employees happy – they arrive to work unhappy. “They’re distracted with gloom and doom scenarios,” said Jason Ryan Dorsey, also a casbo Guest Lecture Luncheon Series speaker and a generational expert and best-selling author of “50 Ways to Improve Schools for Under $50.”
The generations are commonly classified by birth years, which sometimes vary widely, and each is saddled with colorful descriptions of their alleged negative and positive attributes. These traits often come into play as managers struggle to determine what motivates the various groups.
Gen Y, according to Dorsey, is made up 79.8 million people born in the United States from 1977 to 1995. Gen Xers were born between 1965 and 1977, according to Dorsey’s research, and baby boomers, arriving during the biggest population boom in history, were born between 1946 and 1964.
• Generation Y: A large percentage of the Gen Y employees in school districts who talk to Dorsey admit they haven’t fully committed to a lifelong career in education. It’s a great place at the moment, but they’re certainly open to the idea of other career fits, too, in their futures.
“Gen Y doesn’t have a history in the education workplace to know how good times were be-fore. So what they see is what they get, and they’re evaluating: Is this permanent? Can I live with this?” he pointed out.
Add to this the fact they are low person on the tenure totem pole when layoffs start, and the stress meter jumps again. “The economy is definitely affecting Gen Y. We’ve never been through this before, so we’ve never come out the other side,” Dorsey said. That makes leadership’s pep talks vital. “Convey the message that it’s going to be ok. It may not be easy, it certainly won’t be fun, but after looking at our smartphone news alert that the sky is falling, Gen Y needs to hear a voice of sanity saying, ‘We’re going to make it through,’” he explained.
• Gen X: Welcome to the skeptics in the crowd. Where the Gen Yers were told not to follow the money, but to do what makes you happy, the previous generation grew up verifying that their mothers love them. “I always say to Gen Yers who report to Gen Xers, ‘It’s not that your boss doesn’t like you, it’s that he doesn’t believe you,’” Dorsey explained.
So nix the inspirational quotes of the day if you want to keep them around in favor of sharing the district’s plans and how you arrived at this decision. For a bonus, clue them in on what you’ll do if Plan A doesn’t work out.
“At the same time, Gen X wants to see you keep commitments,” Dorsey added. “If you pass this test, these employees aren’t loyal to organizations, but they’ll follow a great boss anywhere.”
• Baby boomers: Baby boomers measure work ethic in hours per week, and don’t believe in short cuts. They are very team-driven, so in contrast to the Gen Y group, they don’t want to be singled out individually for recognition. In fact, they aren’t as keen on praise as their counterparts at all.
“A boomer once told me that if he is doing something right, the last thing he wants is for the boss to stop, look in the office, interrupt him and tell him he’s doing something right,” said Dorsey. “Gen Y thinks they’re doing something wrong if people aren’t talking to them. Booms think they’re doing something wrong if they are constantly called into the office.”
Cultivating commitmentcontinued from page 44
After determining
what motivates individual
employees, make sure immediate
supervisors have this
information for their
team.
continued on page 48
Spring 2010 | 47
With budget restrictions growing tighter,now is the time to look to PARS for cost-savingretirement plans to achieve fiscal savings while
helping you drive resources back to the classroom.
Contact us today and let us develop one for you!
Drivingresources
to theclassroom
800.540.6369 ext 127www.pars.org
© 2008 Public Agency Retirement Services (PARS). All rights reserved
� Retirement Incentives � CSBA GASB 45 Solutions Program� Alternatives to Social Security
48 | California School Business
Focus on developing
people, and the
byproduct is that
they stay.
The recession caught this group just before their retirement years, so they’re working longer than anticipated, living for delayed dreams. For them, the routine coupled with stress translates to a dull acceptance. Las Virgenes’ name badge policy could help in this situation; the id allows every employee free admission at any performance, athletic event or other activity in the school district.
Relationships maintain and motivate
In other words, pull out all the stops when it comes to motivating and maintaining talent in these challenging times. Recent research by the Conference Board, a global independent membership organization that studies business management and the marketplace, showed that job satisfaction for all workers is at a 22-year low, with only 45 percent of workers satisfied in their jobs. The net result, employee engagement and productivity is at its worst, precisely when organizations need it to be at its best to face the current challenges.
Bruce had a singular final suggestion on keeping talent during the downturn. “It doesn’t take a lot of effort to keep employees – it’s simply building relationships,” she summed up. z z z
Julie Sturgeon is a freelance writer based in Indianapolis, Ind.
Cultivating commitmentcontinued from page 46
Spring 2010 | 49
www.MobileModularRents.com
800.944.3442
For over 30 years Mobile Modular Management Corporation has been providing modular buildings to meet the temporary and permanent space needs of the education market.
Call today to Rent, Lease or Purchase
Who we A.R.E.:Availability
We offer the broadest and deepest selection of modular buildings with an unmatched ability to
customize our buildings to your needs.
ResponseWe offer the quickest and most thorough response to your questions and needs.
ExecutionFrom start to finish, you have a team of
modular building experts to ensure successful execution of your project.
Spring 2010 | 51
out&about
Please send in your Out & About photos from CASBO events along with the names of the people in the photos and the event where the photo was taken. Digital photos may be sent to [email protected].
Spring 2010 | 51
Pictured at the Central Section holiday lunch in December are representatives from CASBO associate member Office Depot (l-r) Paula Job, Marc Williamson and Jeanne Gordon.
All smiles at the CBO Symposium are (l-r) Jennifer Goodner, account technician-payroll, Fortuna Union High School District and CBO Mentor Project participant; Susan Grinsell, assistant superintendent, business services, Humboldt County Office of Education and CBO Mentor Project mentor; and Megan Curtis, chief financial officer, Anderson Union High School District and CBO Mentor Project participant.
(l-r) Alvaro Meza, assistant superintendent, business services, Santa Cruz City School District, and Enrique Palacios, deputy superintendent, Gilroy Unified School District, take a break between sessions at the CBO Symposium in Monterey in November.
(l-r) Ronald Pierce, operations manager, Elk Grove Unified School District, and Nadene Haynes, director, child nutrition, Yuba City Unified School District, catch up during the Sacramento Section holiday lunch in December.
Magnificent 7 Award Recipients pictured at the CASBO Northern Section Holiday luncheon (front row l-r) Kim McNeely, Facilities Award; Victoria Coronado, Purchasing Award; Janet Felice, Child Nutrition Award; Rebecca Polychronis, Human Resources Award; Nicole Kugler, Accounting Award; and Bennie Howard, Northern Section past president. (back row l-r) Peggy Pappain, Accounting Award; Martha Larson, Metro Ed, Technology Award; David Johnston, General Services Award; Sharon Ketcherside, CASBO president, and Wendy Richard, Northern Section president. Award recipients not pictured: Helen Bellonzi, Financial Services Award; and Kristy Urbina, Transportation Award.
52 | California School Business
CASBO book club
Book selection gives keys to transforming any organization Join your CASBO colleagues this spring in
reading this quarter’s Book Club selection,
“Fearless Leadership: How to Overcome
Behavioral Blind Spots and Transform Your
Organization,” by Loretta Malandro.
Malandro, a
world-renowned
communication and
behavioral expert,
gives readers
seeking to move
their organiza-
tion in a new
direction the
tools she says
are needed
to successfully
drive change, overcome obstacles and
align employees to work together effectively.
Using what she calls “behavior-based meth-
odology,” Malandro says she has been able
to train top-performing leaders, and create
high-performance organizations and build
high performance teams. She subscribes
to a simple concept explained in the book:
In order to change your organization, you
must be willing to alter your behavior and
help others make the choice to change their
behavior. She develops leaders who lead
by example.
“Fearless Leadership” takes readers through
a step-by-step process to raise behavioral
standards in the workplace. Malandro de-
scribes fearless leadership as the courage to
take a bold stand, act decisively and engage
with others in an extraordinary way. The
book also includes the secrets behind con-
fronting blind spots that sabotage success,
overcoming the “need to be right,” building
committed partnerships, talking straight and
confronting difficult situations and building a
culture of 100 percent accountability.
Read along with other CASBO members and
learn how leaders who act courageously
when faced with uncertainty or fear, take
bold stands and engage with people in
real ways are able to generate long-lasting
improvements to their workplace.
CH
ILD
RES
TRA
INT
BASI
C D
ESIG
N
C.E. White’s renowned Child Restraint Seat is available as an integral part of the new 3-point Student Safety Seat™. This double-duty design gives you safety and versatility.
• For children 20 to 60 lb. • Exceeds all Federal, State and Canadian safety standards • Standard school bus vinyl and colors, or Kevlar, Prevaill™or ProForm™ fi reblock.
C.E. White’s Basic Design Student Safety Seat™is comfortable, durable and features an integrated 3-point lap and shoulder harness that is easy to use.
• A single frame seat back design features a two-step “Controlled Collapse” for safety of compartmen-talization • Meets all current FMVSS and Canadian standards for school buses • Standard school bus vinyl and colors, or Kevlar, Prevaill™ or ProForm™ fi reblock.
�
�������������������������������������
417 Kibler Street • New Washington, OH 44854 • 419.492.2157 Fax 419.492.2544 • www.cewhite.com
CH
ILD
RES
TRA
INT
BASI
C D
ESIG
N
STUDENT SAFETY SEAT™
Spring 2010 | 53
firstperson
We can do anything if we stay positiveBy Kevin SwartzendruberCASBODirectorofMemberships&Partnerships
sudo
kuWhen i was a boy, I thought I would become a professional skateboarder. I didn’t just dream about it, I truly felt it would happen.
Even though that dream faded as I got older and my interests went else-where, I have always felt that you can accomplish anything if you truly believe you can do it, but if you don’t believe it, you’re already behind.
One of my favorite quotes comes from Henry Ford, who said, “If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, you are right.”
One of the powerful things about casbo is that our members have always believed we’re the go-to organization for school business information and profes-sional development. They never said, “I don’t know if this is possible but let’s try;” they knew it could happen and made it happen.
When I started working at casbo four years ago, I was told I would experi-ence a level of volunteerism that I had not experienced in any association before.
“Yeah, sure,” I said, “like I haven’t heard other organizations tell me how wonderful their volunteers are.” But, I quickly became a believer in the volun-teer spirit here at casbo and I feel casbo is very unique in that regard. Every time I travel to a casbo section event or attend a section board meeting, I’m amazed and proud of our members.
Volunteers like Tish Koch, our strate-gic planning facilitator, make me proud to be associated with a group that is so passionate about its success. Tish is a prime example of the power of positive
thinking. Even in the most challenging of times, when we didn’t think we could accomplish all the goals before us, Tish constantly told us to “trust the process.” It’s almost as if she knew we would be successful.
Now, you’re probably thinking, “We’re all struggling because of this economy and here’s this guy writing about thinking positive!” But, I think it’s now more important than ever! We will get through this, together, and we need help from volunteers more than ever.
Even if you don’t have time to vol-unteer, I encourage you to help us spread
the word about the great things casbo offers. Thank you to all our members who sing the praises of casbo at every oppor-tunity; those who tell people they have to attend the annual conference, those who take our Newsbreaks to their school boards and those who talk about the value of casbo membership. casbo couldn’t be successful without your efforts!
We will get through these economic times eventually. Thank you to all loyal casbo supporters for hanging in there through these difficult times.
Volunteerism in our organization is second to none! I’m positive about that!
1 5 2 9 3 47 3 5
6 7 8 18 2
8 1 53 54 1 3 9
5 4 69 7 5 6 4 3
answers on page 57
54 | California School Business
Spring 2010 | 55
The California School Boards Association, in association
with Piper Jaffray & Co., has partnered with the California
Association of School Business Officials, and enhanced the
Certificates of Participation program.
û Fixed and variable interest rate options
û Flexible prepayment provisions
û Capitalized interest
û Flexible repayment schedules
û Low cost of issuance
û Education Code 17406 financings
California School Boards Association 3100 Beacon Blvd. | West Sacramento, CA 95691 | 800.266.3382
56 | California School Business
advertiserindex
403b Investment AdvisorsZUK Financial Group(888) 488-8480www.zukfinancial.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Accounting, Auditing & Financial ServicesVavrinek, Trine, Day & Co LLP(909) 466-4410www.vtdcpa.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Vicenti, Lloyd + Stutzman LLP(626) 857-7300www.vlsllp.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
ArchitectsWLC Architects(909) 987-0909www.wlc-architects.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Bond CounselJones Hall(415) 391-5780www.joneshall.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Construction ManagementRoebbelen(916) 939-4000www.roebbelen.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
SGI Construction Management(626) 395-7474www.sgicm.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Consulting / AdvocacySchool Innovations & Advocacy(800) 487-9234www.sia-us.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Consulting ServicesGASB 45 Solutions(916) 371-4691www.csba.orgPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Vavrinek, Trine, Day & Co LLP(909) 466-4410www.vtdcpa.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Vicenti, Lloyd + Stutzman LLP(626) 857-7300www.vlsllp.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Contractors / Construction ManagementBernards(818) 336-3536www.bernards.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Cooperative PurchasingThe Cooperative Purchasing Network(713) 744-8133www.tcpn.orgPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Emergency 24 Hour ServicesAmerican Technologies, Inc.(800) 400-9353www.amer-tech.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Eye CareVSP(800) 852-7600www.vsp.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Financial and Human Resource SoftwareInfinite Visions/ Windsor Management(888) 654-3293www.infinitevisions.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Smartetools(760) 242-8890www.smartetools.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Financial Consulting ServicesPFM Financial Services(800) 891-7910www.casbo.orgPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Financial ServicesPiper Jaffray & Co.(800) 876-1854www.PJC.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Stone & Youngberg LLC(800) 447-8663www.syllc.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Fire & Water Damage RestorationAmerican Technologies, Inc.(800) 400-9353www.amer-tech.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
FurnitureVirco Manufacturing Corp.(800) 813-4150www.virco.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Back Cover
Healthcare Services/InsuranceCalifornia’s Valued Trust(559) 437-2960www.cvtrust.orgPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Insurance Services/BenefitsAmerican Fidelity Assurance Co.(866) 523-1857www.afadvantage.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
ASCIP(562) 403-4640www.ascip.orgPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Keenan & Associates(310) 212-0363www.keenanassoc.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Schools Excess Liability Fund (SELF)(916) 321-5300www.selfjpa.orgPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Self Insured Schools of CA (SISC)(800) 972-1727www.sisc.kern.orgPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Standard Insurance Company(800) 522-0406www.standard.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Legal Services/Law FirmAtkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo(562) 653-3200www.aalrr.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Dannis Woliver Kelley(562) 366-8500www.dwkesq.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Fulbright & Jaworski LLP(213) 892-9323www.fulbright.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Jones Hall(415) 391-5780www.joneshall.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Orbach, Huff & Suarez, LLP(310) 788-9200www.Ohslegal.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP(413) 773-5494www.orrick.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Mandate ReimbursmentSchool Innovations & Advocacy(800) 487-9234www.sia-us.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Network Solutions & Servers & PC SolutionsSehi Computer Products, Inc.(800) 346-6315www.sehi.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Program ManagementCapital Program Management(916) 553-4400www.capitalpm.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Program/Construction ManagementSeville Construction Services(626) 204-0800www.sevillecs.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Public FinanceStone & Youngberg LLC(800) 447-8663www.syllc.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Spring 2010 | 57
advertiserindex
sudoku from page 53
AD PAGE INDEXAmerican Fidelity Assurance Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
American Technologies, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
ASCIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Bernards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
C.E. White Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
California’s Valued Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Capital Program Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Creative Bus Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Dannis Woliver Kelley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Eagle Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Edupoint Educational Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Fulbright & Jaworski LLP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
GASB 45 Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Infinite Visions/ Windsor Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
ING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Jones Hall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Keenan & Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Mobile Modular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Northern California Carpenter’s Regional Council . . . . . . . . . 14
Orbach, Huff & Suarez, LLP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
PFM Financial Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Piper Jaffray & Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Public Agency Retirement Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Q’straint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Roebbelen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
School Innovations & Advocacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Schools Excess Liability Fund (SELF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Sehi Computer Products, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Self Insured Schools of CA (SISC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Seville Construction Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
SGI Construction Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Smartetools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Standard Insurance Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Stone & Youngberg LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
The Cooperative Purchasing Network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
The Southern California Gas Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Tyler Technologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
UnitedHealthcare StudentResources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
U.S. Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Vavrinek, Trine, Day & Co LLP (Accounting, Auditing & Financial Services) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Vavrinek, Trine, Day & Co LLP (Consulting) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Vicenti, Lloyd + Stutzman LLP (Accounting, Auditing & Financial Services) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Vicenti, Lloyd + Stutzman LLP (Consulting) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Virco Manufacturing Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Back Cover
VSP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
WLC Architects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
ZUK Financial Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Rentals of Modular BuildingsMobile Modular(925) 606-9000www.mobilemodularrents.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Retirement BenefitsING(909) 980-5512www.ingretirementplans.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Public Agency Retirement Service(800) 540-6369 #127www.pars.orgPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Risk Management ServicesSchools Excess Liability Fund (SELF)(916) 321-5300www.selfjpa.orgPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
School Bus Sales Service & PartsCreative Bus Sales(800) 326-2877www.creativebussales.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
School ConstructionNorthern California Carpenter’s Regional Council(510) 568-4788www.nccrc.orgPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
School/Student Insurance PlansUnitedHealthcare StudentResources(888) 282-5957www.k12studentinsurance.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Services/UtilitiesThe Southern California Gas Company(800) 427-6584www.socalgas.com/business/rebates/onBillFinancing.htmlPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Student Information ServicesEagle Software(888) 487-7555www.aeries.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Edupoint Educational Systems(800) 338-7646www.edupoint.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Student Safety SeatsC.E. White Company(239) 218-7078www.cewhite.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
TransportationTyler Technologies(800) 433-5530www.tylertech.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Wheelchair & Occupant Securement SystemsQ’straint(954) 986-6665www.qstraint.comPlease see our ad on page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1 5 8 2 6 9 7 3 42 9 7 4 3 1 5 6 84 6 3 7 5 8 9 1 25 8 1 3 9 7 4 2 66 2 4 8 1 5 3 7 97 3 9 6 2 4 8 5 18 4 6 1 7 3 2 9 53 1 5 9 4 2 6 8 79 7 2 5 8 6 1 4 3
58 | California School Business
lastwords
© CASBO 2010
1,928%
10%
Budget: a mathematical confirmation of your suspicions.~ A.A. Latimer
Achievement seems to be connected with action. Successful men and women keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.~ Conrad Hilton
My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income. ~ Errol Flynn
Twitter grew a massive 1,928 percent in the U.S. from June 2008 to June 2009, now reach-ing a total of 21 million monthly unique visitors. Facebook leads all social networks with 87.3 million unique visitors inJune 2009.
Source:NielsonOnline
California’s unemployment rate won’t fall below 10 percent until 2012.
Source:UCLAsenioreconomistJerryNickelsburg.
The number of housing permits issued in California in 2009 slid to 37,000 units, compared with a high of 212,960 units permitted in 2004.
Source:KyserCenterforEconomicResearch
37,000
Spring 2010 | 59
A better healthcare program is only inches away.
800.288.9870 | cvtrust.org | Call us for a FREE information kit
As a non-profit organization since 1984, we’ve focused on one thing…premium healthcare at the most affordable cost. And isn’t that exactly what everyone is searching for?
So if you’re in labor or management and rightfully demand more for your district and members…take a little trip on your computer and discover the perfect solution.
Visit cvtrust.org and find out why we’re the right choice.
