Miller Creek School District scales back transitional kindergarten

The Miller Creek School District will keep a reduced version of transitional kindergarten in its elementary schools next year.

Kristy Treewater, the district’s deputy superintendent, made the announcement at a special board of trustees meeting Monday. The decision followed concerns earlier this month that the district would cut the program entirely.

“We will reduce the program to three hours and 20 minutes daily,” Treewater said during a presentation on $1.28 million in budget cuts the district is planning for 2024-25. “That is the minimum required by the state.”

Transitional kindergarten, a program for 4-year-olds who do not yet meet the 5-year-old age eligibility for kindergarten, was mandated for all public schools statewide by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Although many school districts that are funded through per-student subsidies receive state aid for TK classes, districts that are so-called “basic aid” — or community-funded by local property taxes — do not receive any state assistance. Miller Creek is among numerous basic aid school districts in the county.

Treewater said the district will “explore whether our community partners can establish the maximum in child care services” to fill in for the remainder of the day not covered by the TK classes.

Trustees voted unanimously to send the updated list of budget cuts to the Marin County Office of Education by a deadline on Friday. The county office requested details on the cuts before concurring with a “positive” status for the district’s budget for 2024-25 and the two years after that.

“This will give us about 5.25% in reserves, so we can preserve our positive certification,” Treewater said. The minimum reserves amount needed to keep in positive status is 3%.

The board and administration also promised to look into other ways to reduce spending before the final budget is approved in June.

“Stay with us,” said trustee Caitlin McShane, who is spearheading a parent and staff budget advisory committee. “We have one more meeting left.”

Brad Honsberger, the board of trustees president, said the district will also consider reductions in non-classroom spending such as transportation services, centralized district office operations and special education.

“We knew what was going to happen,” Honsberger said, referring to the expiration of one-time COVID-19 relief funds that caused a $1.2 million deficit in the district’s approximately $33 million budget.

“Maybe we needed to do a better job communicating to everyone that this money’s going to dry up in 2024?” Honsberger said. “How do we maintain strong communications with the community so there is no misunderstanding as to how did we get there?”

The administration and board comments came after several parents and teachers voiced concerns over the staff cuts, particularly in intervention services and mental health.

The district voted on March 12 to approve a series of reduced hours or layoffs, including those affecting 21 temporary teachers and 14 other staffers.

Longtime Lucas Valley Elementary School teacher Nicole Camarda said she was “really disappointed” in the tone around the district in recent weeks since the cuts were announced.

“It feels like it’s us versus them,” Camarda, who has been on the job for 14 years, said at Monday’s meeting. “We have a really tough job, with a lot of stress. The morale right now is very low.”

Lucas Valley parent Sivan Oyserman was “concerned” about the layoffs and reduced hours, she said.

“These cuts will affect the quality of education in the district,” she said. “Part of the reason we moved here was because of the high quality of the schools.”

She called for cuts to be made in other non-classroom areas such as administration.

Treewater said the district, in the new budget plan, has cut out all professional contracts for administrative services.

“That work will all go now to our new interim superintendent,” Treewater said, referring to longtime Marin educator Valerie Pitts, who was recently hired through June 14. Pitts is filling in for Becky Rosales, who is on medical leave.

Treewater said the district will also look into working with equity-based programs that offer financial support for schools that serve student populations such as English learners, those from low-income families and foster youths.

“For every 10% of population in those groups, the school will receive extra resources,” Treewater said.

If there is 25% of a school’s student population in those categories, the programs could pay for an additional staff person, she said.