Video: Superintendent Talks Budget Crisis at Community Forum

On a day when pink slip notices were sent to more than 60 Arcadia Unified School District staff members, AUSD Superintendent Joel Shawn addressed budget concerns at a Thursday night forum at Arcadia High School attended by dozens of concerned parents.

“We’ve been in a budget crisis for five years and we’ve pretty much protected you from it, but we can’t do it any more,” Shawn said, setting the tone for a speech that mixed humor with hard facts.

Shawn cited AUSD’s low revenue limit as among the reasons that the district faced such brutal layoffs. AUSD's revenue limit ranks fourth lowest among the 48 districts within Los Angeles County.

The district is exploring the possibility of a parcel tax to increase revenue, but it will take six months to a year to research such a tax and to do outreach to the community, Shawn said.

The district faces a $349 per student reduction in funding unless the public passes an extension of temporary sales tax and temporary vehicle license fees that Governor Jerry Brown has proposed. If Brown's extension passes--at this point it's not even on the June ballot--AUSD would face a much more manageable $19 reduction per student.

Throughout his speech, Shawn made clear that the best way parents in the community can help is contributing to the Arcadia Educational Foundation (AEF).

Lisa Lucas, vice president of the group and a speaker at Thursday night’s forum, said AEF would be delivering a check for $210,000 to the district next week, which is money that could be used to save three teachers' jobs. AEF has already raised nearly enough to save a fourth teacher’s job as well, according to Lucas.

School board-elect Kay Kinsler also spoke at the forum, telling audience members that the PTA would be holding a “Wear Pink Rally” at area schools on March 15 to raise awareness of the teachers who received the pink slips Thursday.

During her brief remarks, Board of Education President Lori Phillipi, obviously troubled by the teachers the district may lose to budget cuts, said that as a board member, “you feel personally responsible for [the layoffs].”

When the superintendent asked at the end of the evening how the audience would rate his presentation on a scale of one to five, nearly all in the audience gave Shawn a five.

Brenda Stimpson, an AUSD parent and a forum attendee, called the night “highly-informative.” Stimpson, along with two other Arcadia parents, has started a "Save Arcadia Schools" Facebook page to try to mobilize the community’s efforts. In less than a week--the group was started last Friday--the page has already seen 179 members join.

Jonathan Ma, the student body president at Arcadia High School, was also at Thursday’s forum. Ma’s a senior and will be off to college next year, but that doesn’t mean he’s not concerned about the many teachers whose livelihoods are at stake. The teen said he plans to get involved with the fundraising effort and make sure the community knows about the issue.

 “It’s our job to spread the word,” Ma said.

Superintendent Shawn closed his speech by reading a letter from

"I’ve done this presentation literally fifty times and usually I end with a big thud, and people say you should have something inspirational and I got nothing. Now I got something. And I can’t think of anything better," Shawn said as he held up Jocelyn's letter.