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Bakersfield city schools to consider program cuts

BY TARA McLAUGHLIN, Californian staff writer
e-mail: tmclaughlin@bakersfield.com | Friday, Mar 21 2008 5:03 PM

Last Updated: Friday, Mar 21 2008 5:03 PM

The Bakersfield City School District Tuesday will suggest that the district not renew three grant-funded programs and notify affected employees.

Maintaining the programs would be too costly, according to an agenda item prepared by Linda Goodspeed, director of certificated personnel.

The district was not sure how many students and staff would be impacted, spokesman Steve Gabbitas said.

The programs included in the recommendation are Reading First, Safe Schools Healthy Students and Targeted Instructional Improvement Programs.

Fifteen schools use the reading program that is meant to target kindergarten through 3rd grade, Gabbitas said.

Safe Schools Healthy Students is a social skills development program meant to stem violence.

The board will also consider increasing a decade-old travel allowance by 41 percent to $190 per day: $35 for food, $155 for hotels. And the district will reintroduce a tuberculosis testing policy, this time allowing students to enroll in the district with a risk assessment questionnaire signed by a doctor rather than requiring a TB skin test.

The district last year pulled a policy recommendation following concerns by the Kern County Department of Public Health Services. Health experts said mandatory testing was an outdated waste of time and money.