By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

After saying goodbye to one of their own, Benicia Unified School District trustees voted last week to approve reductions in certificated (teaching) and classified (non-teaching) staff, and to change board elections from odd to even numbered years.

Trustee Dana Dean gave an emotional farewell in announcing her move to fill a vacant seat on the Solano County Board of Education. After determining that the board has 60 days to appoint a replacement, trustees handled another electoral matter by following the county board’s example and approving an election switch to even-numbered years.

The move means Dean’s eventual replacement and Trustee Steve Messina, who would have faced re-election this fall, will serve until November 2014.

The change is expected to save the district money, Superintendent of Benicia Schools Janice Adams said.

“Cost of election is impacted by the number of entities that are on the ballot, so as more districts go to even years, the impact increases for Benicia,” she said.

Cost savings was the motivation behind another move by the board, which voted to approve a package of reductions to district staff.

Assistant Superintendent Michael Gardner offered the cuts in separate resolutions. The first reduced the number of certificated staff because of declining district enrollment.

“The reductions in total are positions, not necessarily people that will receive notices of preliminary layoffs,” Gardner told the board. “Many of those will be covered by retirements we have had, and we have also had some temporary people in place. But there will be some reductions in staff.”

Stewart lamented the move. “When I think how understaffed the district is, I have a hard time with the concept of layoffs. I don’t want layoffs if we can avoid them,” he said.

Next came a resolution to reduce the number of classified staff. “Along with declining enrollment, we also will have classified staff we will need to reduce,” Gardner said. “Unfortunately along with declining enrollment, for classified staff many of the staff are paid for with categorical funds which at this time we do not know if they will be available.”

There was no public comment on the possibility of layoffs for either certificated or classified staff. Both resolutions passed 3-1, with Stewart voting no on both.

But the board also voted to spend some money Thursday in agreeing to split the cost of two police officers, known as School Resource Officers, with Benicia Police Department, which had covered the cost of the program entirely since it began in 1993.

The cost-sharing arrangement, approved unanimously, will start at the beginning of the 2013-14 fiscal year.

“For the last 20 years we have had an SRO on the high school campus, and for many years there has been one on the middle school campus. That has been at full cost paid for by the city for all those years,” board President Rosie Switzer said.

“We believe that the School Resource Officer program is invaluable to the safety of our campuses, to the welfare of our students,” Adams said.

In addition to agreeing to split the cost of the program, trustees also voted to expand it from four days to five.

“That would give us coverage five days a week instead of four,” Adams said. “That will enhance our program, and enhance the support to our schools.”

The SROs are primarily at the high school and middle school but also serve Liberty High and the elementary schools. Total cost of the program, once expanded, will be $300,000, making the district’s share $150,000.

Speaking to the need for a police presence on campuses and the impact that not having any SRO would have, Benicia police Chief Andrew Bidou said, “An officer that is there every day, communicates with the kids, prevents things from happening, you miss that. Traffic is a huge issue, so you have someone that works with staff to deal with traffic issues. All the other things an SRO does, which are really invaluable, you lose all that,” Bidou said.

Trustee Gary Wing added: “I’ve seen firsthand the relationship that our SROs have had out in the community, even our past SROs, the relationship they build at the school as an SRO goes far into our community. It is so valuable.”