They hand out raises during a pandemic and economic crisit with little discussion and then talk about a deficit next year?!? And again not a peep from the school board in this article. Go figure! They aren't just sheltering in place from the virus anymore, they are sheltering from their constituents. And these geniuses are in control of the education of children?!? Lord help us. This just shows why you should never promote teacher/principals to be Chief Business Officers. Neither Superintendent Rudolph nor CNO Westover have a clue how to manage a budget, moreover and especially during a crisis. And I can't wait to see what happens if board member Jose Gutierrez gets elected to the city council! But I guess this is what happens when you elect people who own next to nothing or with little financial sense to positions with fiduciary duties. They spend the money and then ask for more.

A raise.. during a pandemic.. like we all couldn't see the budget crisis coming.

We need to take that raise back, for starters.

People are losing jobs in the bay area. Many others are taking pay cuts.

A raise, right now, is obscene.

After 10+ years of economic boom, weren't we all expecting a market correction? This district is so used to wasting our money and then coming to us for another bond measure. It's typical of government spending other people's money. Raises for teachers also translate into guaranteed pensions that we are obligated to fund even during down years. Time to layoff those deadbeat teachers. Any parents who are on campus enough know who they are. Get rid of tenure and get rid of the lemons who are draining our funds and short changing our kids.

Seems to me that this is a normal cyclical budget process that we’ve seen through the years, with the unexpected, added addition of the Covid-19 expenses that no one could have predicted. For years, we’ve hoarded reserves in this district and we made calculated decisions to spend some of those reserves to improve teacher pay to help retain as many of our teachers as we can and prevent them from fleeing to higher paying districts. And local companies have been stepping up with grants for technology needs such as chrome books and hotspots and I think that will help with these unexpected costs going forward. But we are in a crisis so the idea that additional expenses during a crisis are somehow outlandish seems a bit disingenuous. We’ll be fine. The budget department in our district is well stacked, top down, with talent, even if people reading these stories don’t know how a budget office works. Our budget office does a fantastic job keeping an eye on our district finances. We may have to make some tough choices in the coming year...like the rest of the country...but in the end we’ll continue to be better and stronger as a district.

In March the district planned for a $1.4 million deficit and now it is almost $2 million more??? The expense for the chromebooks made sense, but what on earth was the other almost half a million more spent on? Utility costs should have been less with students and teachers not in the buildings. Hand sanitizer doesn't cost that much. It appears that Standing Ovation is right with the thought that Rudolph and Westover can't manage a budget. The Board should be considering this in year-end evaluations for both.

Anyone else notice how cfrink always comes to the rescue when someone criticizes Rudolph? Take off your rose colored glasses!

It will be nice to see if carina decides to run for Board this election. There seems to be an opening seat and the Administration would always like to see yet another strong supporter/advocate (and certainly not strong community 'oversight" / a member who asks questions)

BTW, the Administrative salary overhead of the MVWSD continues to be 1/6 over the state average of 6% of the Budget. The Rudolph Administration continues to not improve that (reduced administrative overhead to at least match the state ave). That's also 'where the money goes' and the access staffing in administrative and administrative support positions WAS MENTIONED in all outside District Quality Audits from the early 2000. The entry audit under Rudolph noted this - AND THE BOARD HAS NOT DIRECTED that this excess overhead be cured. (pg. 11 of link)
Web Link

I will not vote for Gutierrez for Council for this and similar reasons (mainly just financial responsibility/efficiency and effectiveness of delivering Education to kids). Good Heart (it's the kids) needs to be matched by good fiscal/program oversight.