And I guess that money spent on consultings firm to study a tax hike and million dollar construction plans was money down the drain.

Eliminate school buses. We don't need them, we are not in the country.

Eliminate full time Maintenance. Let Custodians, Teachers, Father's volunteer.

Eliminate Teacher's Aides and Secretary's. Parents do this work for free every day. Take advantage of it.

SAVE THE TEACHERS....WE NEED THEM MORE

Eliminate positions at the District Office. Based on other stories, they can't seem to do their jobs anyway.

I recall the custodians maintaining the schools when our children were young. They cleaned and repaired anything. Maintenance workers came many years later when funds were available. Go back to that theory again until we are out of the recession. Believe me, it worked great.

".....fear that millions of dollars more will disappear before the year is out."

Disappear? No it's not disappearing, It's in plain site,

Just drive by Graham Middle School and see a perfectly decent parking lot (no potholes or even cracks that I can think of) being completely dug up and replaced using the last half-million dollars left over from the LAST facilities bond.

$500,000 for a new parking lot. Yep, we got our priorities straight.

Let's hear it again from the district office...."It's all about the kids"

The problem starts at the top and that's where it should be fixed first.
See the post and link put up by another commentor.

What a scandal.

School Boards and Superintendents throughout the County are showing a very poor example; almost none of the 34+ superintendents have a performance component in their pay !!

The Santa Clara County Grand Jury just released the following report

WHO REALLY BENEFITS FROM EDUCATION DOLLARS?

(Hint: It’s Not the Students)

Web Link

The paper should publish the findings of the Grand Jury!

Follow the money. This board should appoint an auditor, outside of education cirlces to clean up this district.

Too much waste at a time we can no longer afford it.

We need to focus on the teacher in the classroom during their contact with children and nothing else. New construction, lunch programs, high-priced management that accomplishes little but spend money should be reassessed.

This is all starting to ring hollow. Between repaving the Graham Middle School parking lot and the $6,000 dollars given to the director of the schools for his car, on top of a way too high salary, I add up say $550,000 dollars wasted.
This money could have been spent better elsewhere.

"The state reductions could mean cutting $71 in spending per Mountain View Whisman student for the 2008-09 school year, and $537 per student for the 2009-10 school year"

Eliminate the Superintendent's position, saving $44 per student, promote an underling to take his place, or better yet fire the HR director who botched the Polifrone case, and then hire a motivated individual who wants to work and who perhaps doesn't have a job at the moment. Then, stop spending $500,000 on a parking lot. There I've solved at least a few budget problems right off the bat sitting on my couch and no one had to hire a consultant.

But the crisis is apparently not reflected in the salary levels of superintendents....