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BCSD will eliminate, reduce programs

BY TARA MCLAUGHLIN, Californian staff writer
tmclaughlin@bakersfield.com | Tuesday, Mar 25 2008 9:41 PM

Last Updated: Tuesday, Mar 25 2008 9:46 PM

The Bakersfield City School District on Tuesday agreed to scale back or cut three grant-funded programs and will reassign 10 employees.

State and federal funding was either greatly reduced or eliminated, Superintendent Michael Lingo said.

Federal dollars for Safe Schools Healthy Students, a social skills development program meant to stem violence, was set to run out in November, so the district decided to eliminate it at the end of the school year. Lingo said he didn't know if cutting the program would impact students because he wasn't sure there was proof it achieved its goals.

Six employees whose contracts were tied to the grant will not return next year. Three others affiliated with the program but in different employment situations will be reassigned, Lingo said.

Funding for Reading First, a federal program for kindergarten through third grade and used at 15 BCSD schools, was cut by two-thirds, Lingo said. The program currently has one coach at each site, but six of those will be removed from the program and reassigned in the district. The remaining nine will take up the other schools.

The state budget crisis has impacted funding for Targeted Instructional Improvement Programs, a racial integration effort also known as magnet. One employee will be reassigned because of the funding shortfall.

In other matters, the board increased its travel allowance by 41 percent to $190 per day: $35 for food, $155 for hotels. While Lingo acknowledged the current fiscal timing wasn't great, he said the cost of staying in major cities was well beyond the old per diem.

The board also approved the first reading of a new tuberculosis testing policy. It would allow students to enroll in the district with a risk assessment questionnaire signed by a doctor rather than requiring a TB skin test.

The Kern County Department of Public Health Services disapproved of the district's earlier proposal to require skin tests, saying it was an outdated waste of time and money.