Some language is just so awful it can’t be used in mixed company, especially at schools, because it gets people so incredibly riled up.  I’m talking of course, about the dreaded F-Word; the worst of all words… the curse of all conversations…It’s an absolute discussion stopper.  It inspires strong emotions that take over common sense and erase rational thought.  It’s blasphemous.  It’s horrible.  (I can’t believe I’m going to actually put it in print)   Here it is!!!……

FURLOUGH

Huh?  What F-Word did you THINK I was talking about?  Geez….this is a SCHOOL blog, after all. 

This worrisome word has entered everyone’s vocabulary and consciousness lately.  California state employees are on furloughs (three days a month, last I heard), as well as many other states in the US (Maryland, Oklahoma, Hawaii, Colorado…and more).  Some cities and municipalities have also implemented furloughs (Palm Springs, Chowchilla, Selma and Visalia).  The California Court system has reduced court hours/availability by the use of furlough days.  Even CSU Fresno has included furlough days in their school calendar for this year and some K-12 schools have done the same, or are considering it.   With all of this going on, the minute you say the F-Word around here, people are afraid we too are jumping on the furlough bandwagon. 

We’re not.  Can we please have a rational conversation about this? 

I’ve said before, many times, in emails and in face-to-face conversations; we have to examine every budget item and every budget reduction suggestion, no matter what we think.  We have to gather all the facts we can, and then make decisions we can stand behind and know were the best decisions for our situation.  We can’t blindly dismiss (or race into!) any budget ideas right now.  It’s too important to our future.  As a district, we would be remiss if we didn’t fully investigate all of the options available to us.

For example, we know that a one day furlough will save the district approximately $900,000.  That’s close to a million bucks, ladies and gents!  But, put in the perspective of the size of our need ($15-20 million in reductions necessary) it’s relatively small.  A furlough would not have any effect on an employee’s retirement benefits (unless it happened to be in your last/highest paid year of employment).  A furlough wouldn’t have any effect on your years of service credit as calculated by STRS.  One furlough day would only be approximately .5% (yes, that’s POINT five percent) of a reduction in annual pay.  Because it is our philosophy that budget cuts impact the students we serve as little as possible, it has been discussed that if a furlough were found to be necessary, a Staff Dev. Day would be a logical placement.

It’s important that we know all this.  That will help us (and I do mean ALL of US…) to make a rational, well considered decision based on facts, not opinions and emotions.

There have been very open, candid discussions about the budget and possible reductions the district will have to make in many meetings.  However,  no one has made any decisions.  Somehow, though, as details of the conversations get out to the masses, there is misguided fear.

I know where the fear comes from.  There has been a history of decision making in the district that has not always been as open as it could have been.  I’ve been in Faculty Senate a long time.   I know that in the past, even when a decision was for the good of the district, if it wasn’t processed openly, it wasn’t received well.  I’ve been to many meetings over the years where the end decision seemed pretty clear from the beginning.  I understand.

But things are changing.  Just look at the Budget Standards Committee as an example.  It was a more open process than EVER BEFORE.  Items for review were many, and nothing was sacred.  All of the discussions made people nervous, I know that.  Any time you do something new, it is a little scary.  So, it’s OK to feel nervous when we talk about furloughs, and how they MIGHT affect us.  It’s important to talk about the facts, and to stop the spread of false information.  But for goodness sake, we’ve got to talk.   No one is lying when they say there will be no furloughs this year, and there are no plans at this time for next year.  That is the truth. 

Here’s an analogy I came up with:

Out at the school sites, you all know the procedure for a Lock-Down drill, right?  You probably have a class list posted in a handy place.  You might even have the emergency procedures posted near your door.    You know exactly what to do.  You have all the information you need, so you are prepared when the time comes…but we hope to goodness it never comes.  We don’t want to have Lock-Downs, but we’re ready if we have to.   Having all the information about furloughs is just like that:  We don’t want to have furloughs…but we’re ready if we have to.  We just hope the ‘budget lock-down’ doesn’t come. 

So, keep talking….but don’t panic about the F-word, OK?

—-LisaMarie