December 9, 2024

Dear MUSD Families and Staff,

Over the last few years, schools in California have seen consistent declining enrollment. As school funding is directly aligned to enrollment, this means that there is less funding to support our schools. There are many reasons for this decline: birth rates have been falling for a number of years; the interdistrict transfer rules have created a system where schools are competing for students and families who can afford to drive their children to other districts often do; and since COVID, the unschooling and homeschooling movements have gained popularity.

For a few years after the COVID pandemic, the state and federal governments poured additional funding into education; these were one-time funds intended to address COVID related learning loss. Now school funding has returned to pre-pandemic levels and the state budget was smaller than we had planned for. In order to balance our budget, we have reduced staffing across the district, which leads to larger class sizes and less support staff. Additionally, like many industries, we are working hard to keep up with wage increases and the impact of inflation on our employees' bottom line. Costs for employee benefits have also increased between 3% and 8% annually for the past decade.

So what can we do?

This is my third year as Superintendent, and I continue to learn how education works at the county and state level and that there are many things beyond our local control:

1. The State Budget: Lawmakers make choices to fund certain areas of education and not others. Additionally, when tax revenues fall short like they did this year, schools are given less money that we budget for.
2. The interdistrict transfer process: For a very long time, folks sent their children to their neighborhood schools. In the last decade or so, many families have used the interdistrict transfer process to send their children to schools outside of their neighborhoods. We have done a deep dive into the reasons folks leave and we continue to work to meet the needs of our community to improve the quality of education we provide. We have seen some small gains in this area, but this is slow work that will take many years.
3. The increased funding for safety net systems at schools: Programs such as before and after school care, free meals, school based mental health, and social services for families receive significant funding, while funding remains stagnant for the educational component of the school day.

There are a number of things we are working on to decrease class sizes for kids, offer more competitive wages for our employees, and improve staffing at all sites.

1. Bringing services back to the district from Humboldt County Office of Education (HCOE). For many years, MUSD has contracted with HCOE to provide required educational services to preschoolers and students with significant challenges.  We are working to bring these students back into their neighborhood schools. HCOE’s services have increased in cost significantly and the transportation of students to county services is very expensive.
2. Applying for grants and other funds outside our regular allocations. We have received the Community Engagement Initiative ($140,000 over two years), The Community Schools Grant at Dow’s Prairie ($1,187,000) over five years, and the School Based Mental Health Grant ($7.2 million over five years, in partnership with two other local districts). We are also applying for an additional Community Schools Grant for MMS this year and will continue to pursue grant funding wherever we can.

In addition to all of these ideas, our Governance Team is considering the idea of consolidating school sites. We are currently running three schools at approximately 50% capacity.  

Consolidation would mean that we would slowly transition the Morris School site to house Preschool, Independent Study, and District services. Over a two year period, we would shift Dow’s to be a TK-3 site, and MMS to be a 4-8 site. Our current plan takes into consideration many elements of each site, but these are a few of the most compelling:

• The Dow’s Site has the most interior hallways and many design elements that make it ideal for our youngest students. In addition, our bond funds will assist us in replacing outdated portables with updated early childhood classrooms.
• The Morris site, while beloved for many reasons, is the school site without any interior hallways. The design is very spread out with bathrooms at the far end of each hallway making supervision of the youngest students difficult.
• The MMS site also has many design details for older, larger students. The sports facilities are well developed and the bond funds will help us to redesign the bathrooms for improved safety and comfort. With the addition of earlier grades, we would likely rename this site as it would no longer be a middle school.

As you can see, our enrollment has dropped significantly since the 1990’s.

What does the proposed roll out look like?

Our proposed plan is a two year roll out that would ensure that students do not have to switch back and forth, allow us time to ensure we can absorb staffing changes through retirements and regular attrition, and give the 4-8th staff a year to plan for the addition of 4-5th graders in a self-contained setting:

What happens to the Morris site?

We can very effectively redesign the Morris site to house our Special Beginnings Preschool programs, our School Based Mental Health services, District Staff offices, and our District meeting space. We are also planning to add a Long Term Independent Study program and house it at the site. If the plan is approved, we have a list of educationally adjacent organizations to reach out to for possible rentals.  

As part of the bond work, we are looking into self locking gates for the playgrounds so the community and local sports organizations can use them. Other parts of the site can be leased out for commercial use as well.

What happens if enrollment goes back up?

This would be awesome. School leaders are hopeful that increases in Cal Poly enrollment, possible wind or fish farm industries, and even climate migration may bring more people and their school aged children to our area. As the Morris site will still be part of MUSD, it would be possible to reverse this process, if enrollment increases necessitate it.

What about staff?

Part of the savings of this plan is the need for fewer staff to keep fewer sites operational.  Another reason for the two year roll out plan is to allow us to manage the reductions in staff through regular attrition and retirements. Even last year, a year in which we reduced certificated workforce by 8.0 full time employees, we had to hire for certain positions. Based on past data and an understanding of imminent retirements, we are optimistic we can make these shifts without layoffs.

How can you get more information, ask questions, or share your ideas?

I want to hear your thoughts, questions, concerns and input. This plan is an outline that our school board will be discussing over the next few months. At the Jan-March board meetings, I will be sharing the input of our staff, families and students with the board as we work toward a decision on consolidation. I have set up the following times to meet with anyone who would like to learn more or share their thoughts.  

• Coffee with Ms. Julie–Thursday, December 12, 2024, 7-9 AM at Dow’s Prairie in the Conference Room (near the front office)
• Tea and Cookies with Ms. Julie–Tuesday, December 17, 2024, 5-6 PM, in the Morris Makers’ Lab (the hour before the regular MSPTO meeting)
• Tea and Cookies with Ms. Julie–Tuesday, January 7, 2024, 5-7 PM, at the Middle School Conference Center, at the back of the MMS parking lot
• Additionally, we will be sending out a survey for input and planning at least one, potentially two, Zoom based meetings to present more detailed information and take your input and ideas. Dates to be determined and shared via Parent Square.

I know that this letter contains a lot of information and that this may come as a surprise to many of you. We shared this information with our staff members today, so they are also processing their thoughts and ideas. I want to reiterate that our current plan is a first draft. Our staff, our students, and our community will give us good input and raise important concerns over the next few months. The final plan we bring to the board will be better because of that feedback. I am committed to hearing that input and revising the plan to meet both our budget needs as well as the needs of our students, staff, and community.  

In service to MUSD,

Ms. Julie

jgiannini@mckusd.org

707.839.1549, ext. 1000

Parent Square: Giannini-Previde, Julie