Subject: Public Comment: F.2 K-6 RLA Instructional Materials Adoption
From: Charley Cowens <charley@cowens.net>
Date: 12/7/2011 3:39 PM
To: Charles Ramsey <charamsey@comcast.net>, Madeline Kronenberg <mkronen@aol.com>, Antonio Medrano <amedrano3@sbcglobal.net>, Elaine Merriweather <elainemerriweather@gmail.com>, Tony Thurmond <tony@tonythurmond.com>
CC: Bruce Harter <bharter@wccusd.net>, Hannah Dreier <hdreier@bayareanewsgroup.com>, Nia Rashidchi <NRashidchi@wccusd.net>, Sheri Gamba <SGamba@wccusd.net>

Dear Board Members,

I would like to express my concerns about funding out of parcel taxes an expenditure listed in the agenda for the WCCUSD BOE meeting for Dec. 7, 2011 under:

F.2 K-6 RLA Instructional Materials Adoption
http://www.wccusd.net/wccusd/lib/wccusd/20111207_BOE_Agenda.pdf#page=13

This calls for the use of $900,000 over 3 years ($2.7 million) in "Parcel Tax monies". In the last adopted budget and the interim report under consideration tonight there is $1.25 million in existing expenditures in "Textbooks and teaching materials". The F.2 agenda item does not say how this number would be affected. Is this a way of spending $900K of the existing $1.25M? Is this an additional expenditure on top of the $1.25? If so, where will cuts occur in other parcel-tax-funded activities to make up for this?

Furthermore, as pointed out by another writer to the board, the budgeting categories used for the parcel tax are based on the previous parcel tax's categories not the current parcel tax. <http://www.smartvoter.org/2008/11/04/ca/cc/meas/D/> The current parcel tax does not include "textbooks and teaching materials". The parcel tax expenditures need to be realigned based on the current categories. I would think that you would want to sort this out before making a major new commitment of parcel tax funds.

Finally, we are in a time of extreme budget uncertainty just before the final determination of trigger cuts. Is this really a good time to make this sort of commitment irrespective of special time-sensitive offers from the vendors?

Thank you,
Charley Cowens
Local Resident
charley@cowens.net