State lawmakers co-sponsor bill to help district students

By Neil Nisperos

Staff Writer

Two state lawmakers on opposing sides of the aisle are teaming up to help prevent the cost of sending local students back to school in the summer because of a district error.

In addition, a state senator is also in communication with the state board of education in order to help students avoid the extra class time.

Parents have expressed disappointment with having to send their children back to school after the normal end of the school year after an accounting error caused 4th through 6th graders at Dickson and Rolling Ridge Elementary Schools to miss required school minutes amounting to a full year of school. In order to avoid a penalty of up to $7 million, the board approved a plan to have students attend 34 extra days of schools from June 15 to July 31 after the normal last day of school on June 12 .

Student attendance for the extension will be mandatory. Parents must notify the district if they won't be able to make it in order to participate in off-site independent study, officials said. The board ruling comes even though students at the two schools have met the academic and education time requirement for the school year, officials said. 

Assemblyman and former Chino Hills Mayor Curt Hagman, on Thursday, introduced bill ABXXX 35 intended to cut short the extensions to two or four days instead of 34. But the bill must move quickly through the legislature and gain approval from the governor if the bill's possible approval is to meet a fast approaching deadline of June 12, before which the school district must notify parents of a possible change in plan. 

"With proposed budget cuts to the school district, if kids don't show up to school (during the summer), the district loses (daily attendance) money on top of it," Hagman said. "It's a terrible situation. I'm hoping we can help find a way to a solution."

Hagman's co-author on the bill is Assemblymember Norma Torres, former Mayor of Pomona.

"I don't think we should be punishing children for a human error on the district side," Torres said. "Obviously we're all interested in solving this problem. I'm intereseted in solving this issue but solving the root of the problem. What other liabilities are out there with this school district? I dont want to have to fix management problems every six months or every school year."

It will cost about $200,000 to extend the school year at Rolling Ridge and Dickson until July 31. 

The decision comes at a time when the school district is dealing with severe budget cuts to close a $44 million gap and the possibility of additional cuts. 

Chino Valley Unified has also been court-ordered to open a new school and close three elementary schools to cut costs. 

Nancy Harms, associate superintendent of educational services, took responsibility for the oversight, which occurred in her department. 

"These students have had their 180 days of school," Harms said. "They have met their instructional minutes for the year. They have the 10-day consecutive average. In these two cases, two schools, in redoing bell schedules this year, ended up on their minimum days with less than 180 minutes on those days." 

The absolute minimum for a school day is 180 minutes for fourth through sixth grades. The district fell short of this requirement in the Education Code because of a spreadsheet error, officials said. 

"When we were looking at bell schedules for next year, and some rearranging of bell schedules, we discovered this," Harms said. "It does not, it did not, in the way that the spreadsheet is set up, really show up because the bottom line and the number of school days is what really showed up.

"We have redone the spreadsheet so that no it will not accept the minutes anymore if there are not 180 minutes." 

neil.nisperos@inlandnewspapers.com

(909) 483-9356