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POMONA - A decision on whether to place a parcel tax measure before voters in the Pomona Unified School District in November has been postponed for at least two weeks.

The item was pulled off Wednesday's Board of Education agenda after a district lawyer determined a public hearing on the item had not been properly noticed, Superintendent Richard Martinez said.

The district had inadvertently failed to publish a notice in a local paper that the hearing would take place, but arrangements were being made to have an announcement published by Monday at the latest and schedule a school board meeting for early August, Martinez said.

The district has until Aug. 6 to submit documentation to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk office to get the proposal on the fall ballot, Martinez said.

During Wednesday's meeting, Associated Pomona Teachers President Tyra Weis told board members the district should include language in the ballot measure that states money raised through a parcel tax would not be used to pay administrator salaries or consultants.

"If they add those two, teachers are more likely to support it," Weis said.

Board President Richard Rodriguez said after the meeting that the changes Associated Pomona Teachers requested are workable.

"I think we can support that," he said.

"We need them. They're members really get out there," Rodriguez said referring to the campaigning efforts of the teachers group.

"We certainly hope our employees unions will back us."

In November 2008, Associated Pomona Teachers supported Measure PC. The voter approved bond measure raised $235 millions for renovations and upgrades to district schools.

The proposed parcel tax would be used to pay for academic programs, along with counseling, library services, health services, athletics, visual and performing arts as well as teachers offering those.

Passing the proposed measure would require the approval of a two-thirds majority of district voters.

It approved, property owners would pay $98 per parcel annually for four years.

A parcel tax is levied on any property that is assessed by the Los Angeles County tax collector.

Multi-family residential properties with two to four units would pay $196 a year, according to district information.

Multi-family residential properties with five or more units would pay $490 a year.

Carla Quezada, a representative of the Pomona chapter of California School Employees Association, told board members that if they places a parcel tax on the ballot "We will review it and then take a position," she said.

District leaders received information from a consultant some time ago on parcel taxes, Rodriguez said.

"He told us many other districts are trying to do this," Rodriguez said.

The consultant, San Francisco-based Dale Scott & Company, conducted a poll that showed voters are willing to support a parcel tax, Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said district voters may be willing to support a parcel tax because they are aware of the cuts the district has had to make and the threats to other valuable programs.

Getting voters to support such a proposal may require some work.

"There could be some difficulties," Rodriguez said. "But I think it's worth a try and being positive about it."

POMONA - A proposal to place a parcel tax on the Nov. 2 ballot will go before the school board tonight (July 14).

If the Pomona Unified board decides to place the matter on the ballot, then it will be up to the district voters in Pomona and part of Diamond Bar to decide if they wish to tax themselves.

The proposal would require the approval of two-thirds of those voting to raise about $4million annually for four years.

"We would basically be using (the funding) across the system," said Superintendent Richard Martinez said.

That would include programs that frequently are threatened when the district has to make cuts, he said.

In addition to academic programs, funds would go to counseling, library, health services, athletics and visual and performing arts.

Several of those programs "are areas we go to first because they are away from the classroom but are much needed areas of support," Martinez said.

If voters were to approve the parcel tax, the $4 million it would generate wouldn't be nearly enough to address all of the district's needs nor would it make up for the funds lost in the past, the current year or the future, officials said.

The school district will probably have to make $11 million in cuts in the 2011-2012 school year budget and another $33 million for the 2012-2013 year budget, Martinez said.

However, the parcel tax money would provide some dollars for valuable programs and the teachers who teach in them, he said.

"We're just looking for a bridge to get us through this period," he said.

If voters approve the measure, property owners would pay $98 per parcel annually for four years.

A parcel tax is levied on any property that is assessed by Los Angeles County tax collector and collected through the property tax bill.

Multi-family residential properties with two to four units would pay $196 a year, according to the proposed measure.

Multi-family residential properties with five or more units would pay $490 annually.

With the help of a consultant, the school district carried out a survey at the end of May and early June that showed voters would be willing to support a parcel tax, Martinez said.

Something that seemed to appeal to those polled is that the money from a parcel tax cannot be taken by the state, said Leslie Barnes, assistant superintendent of business services and chief financial officer.

"They want to help education, and they want to help in their own community," Barnes said.

Should the school board decide to put the measure on the November ballot, then members of the Associated Pomona Teachers board of directors will review the matter and determine whether to support it, said Tyra Weis, president of the organization, also referred as APT.

When the school board placed Measure PS on the November 2008 ballot, APT supported the bond measure approved by voters to raise $235 million to carry out renovations at district schools.

At the time, APT worked in partnership with parents, the district and the grassroots organization OneLA. Together the groups walked door-to-door speaking to voters about the benefits of approving the measure, Weis said.

Such a tax "helps retain qualified teachers," she said. In the case of Pomona Unified's proposal "it's short term - wouldn't go on for 20 or 30 years."

More importantly, such a tax benefits students, Weis said.

In California a number of districts, especially in the Bay Area, have turned to parcel taxes to raise funds for education, said Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

In the June election, nine school districts, six from the Bay Area, one from the Central Valley and two from Southern California had parcel taxes on the ballot, according to information from CaliforniaCityFinance.com.

All six of the Bay Area district measures were approved. The other three, including Los Angeles Unified School District's, failed.

Local governments, including school districts, must understand "the reason they don't have money is because we don't have money," Vosburgh said.

Vosburgh said the association generally doesn't take a position on such taxes.

"We think that's a decision left to the locals depending upon the circumstances," he said.

What voters should do is study the measure and ask themselves some questions including "is the administration going to provide good value for their taxes? Is it a fair tax?" he asked.

POMONA -- More than 100 Pomona Unified teachers and other certificated employees will soon receive a letter informing them that they will have a job after all for the coming school year.

The district's school board on Wednesday voted to rescind 113 layoff notices issued in May.

The vote was part of a series of steps that led to the board's adoption of a more than $330 million balanced budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year, which started Thursday.

A combination of cost-saving measures -- including one-time revenues, layoffs, cuts and an early retirement incentive program -- made up for a $36 million loss in revenue.

Superintendent Richard Martinez said the early retirement program allowed the board to rescind the notices issued to certificated employees, most of whom were teachers.

"Many chose to retire early to save the jobs of their colleagues," Martinez said.

The early retirement incentive allowed the district to reduce costs by more than $5.8 million, according to Pomona Unified budget documents.

In November, district officials offered a number of eligible certificated employees the opportunity to sign up for an early retirement incentive program.

In March, the retirement incentive program was offered to eligible members of the Pomona chapter of the California School Employees Association. The association includes employees such as clerical and maintenance personnel.

More than 200 employees, including administrators as well as certificated and classified personnel, signed up for the early retirement incentive, said Leslie Barnes, assistant superintendent of business services and chief financial officer

District administrators later this month will present a list of additional certificated employees to board members in hopes of rescinding more notices, Martinez said.

By the time all the adjustments have been made, the number of certificated employees laid off is expected to drop to about 90, he said.

Associated Pomona Teachers President Tyra Weis said Thursday her organization heard notices would be rescinded and had hoped it would be done before the end of the school year.

"I think it brought a lot of relief for teachers," who received layoff notices, she said.

Pomona Unified needed to call back teachers because of the large number of retirements combined with the layoffs would have made it difficult to meet the educational needs of district students, Weis said.

Weis said she and other association members hope teachers will be quickly notified of the good news.

Letters informing the 113 affected certificated personnel were sent out Thursday, said Steve Horowitz, assistant superintendent of personnel services.

In most cases, personnel will remain at the same schools at which they have been working, Horowitz said.

However, some employees may have a different assignment at their school or have their previous responsibilities but at a different campus, he said.

A total of 321 preliminary layoff notices were issued to certificated employees in March, but, by May, the number had been reduced to 209.

On Wednesday night, school board members authorized laying off 35 classified employees.

Another 61 classified employees will remain employed, but will have changes in their assignments or salary, according to a staff report.

In May, school board members authorized district administrators to issue layoff notices to 57 classified employees, which includes instructional aids, clerical staff and custodial personnel.

Board members voted 4-1 to adopt the budget. Board member Andrew Wong cast the lone opposition vote.

The district's $330.7 million budget includes a number of separate funds such as for child development and adult education.

The general fund -- totaling $225.1 million -- made up the largest part of the budget. The general funds pays for employee salaries and benefits as well as needs such as books, supplies and operating services.

Of the $225.1 million, about $90.5 million are restricted funds that can only be used for certain purposes such as special education or kindergarten to third grade class size reduction.

Salary negotiations allowed the district to save about $5.2 million.

Layoffs saved the district about $4 million, according to district budget information.

Board President Richard Rodriguez said Thursday that the district will be OK for now.

"We're going to survive this year and maybe next year but after that" it's hard to predict, Rodriguez said.

Pomona Unified will be watching its expenses, asking administrators to handle multiple duties and leaving positions unfilled, among other steps, he said.

Whether the district will find itself making cuts again in the new fiscal year depends on the decisions of state lawmakers, Martinez said.

"It depends on how the budget is laid out. I hope they take a second, third and fourth look at (education) funding," Martinez said. "But it's too early to tell. My hope is we don't find ourselves in the same position."

After a tour of Western University of Health Sciences, handling equipment optometrists use and interacting with health care professionals, Margarita Corona was pretty sure she'd found her calling.

Margarita, a freshman at Pomona High School, had been thinking of going to medical school but she changed her mind after the first day of a two-day workshop recently, called "Reaching Out to Families and Communities - Opening Eyes to Optometry."

A group of 10 Pomona High students and their parents took part in the program designed to expose ninth and tenth grade students to the optometry field.

After the first day of activities, Margarita was pleased with all she saw and heard.

"I thought it was so awesome," Margarita said excitedly. "It wasn't something I was expecting. I think I've changed my mind."

Margarita had medical school on her mind, but even though she wears glasses she hadn't considered optometry as a career choice until she learned more about the work of optometrists, she said.

They are the health care professionals often on the front line of a patient's vision care.

The workshop was organized as part of an effort to expose and attract under-represented groups to the optometry profession, said Raymond Maeda, an optometrist and Western's College of Optometry faculty member.

"We're drawing a lot of females but not Latinos," Maeda said.

To attract young people to the field they have to be exposed to optometry at an early age, long before they've locked into a career choice.

This was the first time the College of Optometry, which received its first class in August, organized the workshop.

But Maeda said he plans on working with Pomona High School to refine the workshop and reach out to more students.

Pomona High has an academy program for students interested in health careers and recently was named a demonstration site for the Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID. The program prepares students to succeed academically in high school through tutoring, teaching them study skills and preparing them to think critically.

The program also exposes them to colleges and career opportunities.

"If we could build something bigger in meaning and build a relationship with AVID, that would be great," Maeda said.

The workshop contained several hands-on components including a vision screen session and a chance to learn about the workings of the human eye with the help of a cow's eye.

Then there was a session in which parents acted as patients for their children while the teens used instruments such as a hand-held retinoscope, used to examine the retina, and the phoropter, an instrument used to determine a patient's eyeglass prescription.

Western University's workshop included a parent component designed to explain to families what students must do to get into a graduate program like the College of Optometry and the financial resources available to pay for such an education.

Such a program is expensive, Ann Ellis, assistant dean of student affair for the College of Optometry, told students and parents.

"But you can do it," she said. "Take a deep breathe...This is something you can do."

Veronica Castro, Margarita's mother, said by attending the workshop she learned there are ways to pay for the education her daughter would like to pursue.

"I've discovered there are opportunities she can take advantage of. There are scholarships and loans. There are several options," Castro said in Spanish.

POMONA - Next week 143 administrative employees of the Pomona Unified School District will receive preliminary layoff notices.

Pomona Unified school board member voted Wednesday night 4-0 in favor of issuing the notices informing administrators and others working for them they may be released at the end of the current school year. The 143 represents all administrative employees in the district.

However, action on a separate proposal calling for issuing notices to 328 certificated employees was postponed.

Certificated employees include teachers and others such as counselors, school nurses and school psychologists.

Board members deadlocked, 2-2, to reject the certificated proposal. Board members Roberta Perlman and Jason Rothman voted to reject the proposal with board President Richard Rodriguez and board member Andrew Wong in opposition.

After the tie board members voted to postpone the matter.

School districts have a state-mandated deadline of March 15 to issue preliminary layoff notices informing certificated employees they may not have a job after June 30.

Board member Adrieanne Konigar-Macklin who was in Sacramento called in to participate in the meeting but the phone connection was lost and she did not vote.

Prior to the vote Superintendent Richard Martinez said since 2003 the district has made about $100 million in cuts and it must now cut more than $36 million out of the 2010-2011 school year budget.

It was this situation that led to the proposal to issue 328 notices, or about 20 percent of the certificated employees.

"Not everyone who receives these notices will lose a job," he said.

The figure does not include 121 positions held by employees who accepted an early retirement program and who will leave at the end of the school year, Martinez said.

District personnel are still in the process of determining how many of those 121 employees will have to be replaced, he said after the meeting.

Also negotiations with the Associated Pomona Teachers could result in the 328 number shrinking.

Martinez said district administrators took a 3.2 percent cut in salaries last year.

The reduction continues in place, district spokesman Tim McGillivray said Thursday.

Although cuts have been made in various areas cuts to teaching personnel have been averted so far, Martinez said.

Prior to the vote, Tyra Weis, president of the Associated Pomona Teachers, said "the district was proposing to break educational law" in its certificated proposal. She said the plan to reduce the assignments of 52 teachers from 12 months of work to 10 months was improper.

Most of those positions involved teachers in the district's child development program.

"Our position is that it must be bargained," Weis said. "It's an unfair labor practice."

But Howard Friedman, a lawyer for the district, said the district could move forward with such an action legally.

After the meeting, Rothman said he wasn't going to vote on the certificated layoffs "because I didn't have enough information on the subject."

Perlman said she needed clarification on parts of the proposal including the assignment reductions and other matters.

"We have a responsibility to the public," she said. "We want to be completely clear before we make a decision."

Difficult decisions will be made but "we want to do it with compassion and grace," she said.

Weis said after the meeting she was "in a state of disbelief."

The board action "shows me the board members are seriously looking at ways to address" the matter, she said.

Still, Weis is concerned this week's proposal to notice certificated personnel impacts 20 percent of the Associated Pomona Teachers membership.

"I do believe reducing 20 percent of staff is not feasible to continue programs we're committed to," she said.

Rodriguez said he and his colleagues will revisit the matter before March 15 adding the board must keep in mind the well-being of students and the financial stability of the district.

"We as board members have to keep this district solvent," he said. "We're going to need to work together to get past this crisis."

Martinez said the school board will have a special board meeting next week and has its regularly scheduled meeting March 3.

POMONA - AVID students, faculty and staff gathered in the gym of Pomona High School on Wednesday afternoon waiting for a much-anticipated announcement.

A team of state and national representatives of the Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID, program spent the day on campus visiting more than a dozen classrooms and conducting interviews with students, parents and teachers.

After reviewing data about Pomona High's AVID program and Wednesday's visit the team announced it was certifying Pomona High as a National AVID Demonstration School for 2010-2012, said Julie Elliott, director of the AVID National Demonstration Schools program and the state's AVID director.

With that, students broke out into cheers and applause and faculty members embraced.

Only 110 schools out of 4,500 in the AVID program are National Demonstration schools, Elliott said.

"You are the best of the best," she said drawing more cheers from the students.

Freshman Julian Ortiz was among the students waiting for the announcement.

"I'm proud to be in this school and to represent AVID," Julian said.

Being named an AVID National Demonstration School means it will serve as a model for schools wishing to start or enhance AVID programs, AVID officials said.

The principles of AVID have spread across the campus, said Sandy Sanders, the school's AVID coach and AVID consultant with the Los Angeles County Office of Education.

Before making the announcement, Granger Ward, executive vice president of the AVID Center in San Diego, reviewed the content of the visiting team's report with the audience.

The teams made note of several things including the school's strong college-ready culture; visionary leadership at every level; high parent participation; and tutors who have ties to the school and community, Ward said.

Students are not only focused on learning but articulate and are quite capable of expressing their views clearly, he said.

About 340 Pomona High students are enrolled in the AVID program, which prepares them for college by giving them study, organizational and time-management skills in addition to academic support through bi-weekly tutoring sessions and study groups.

Most are the first members of their families who will be going to college, school officials said.

Pomona High's AVID program has been in place since 1995 and has recently grown to serve about 20percent of the student body, school officials said.

The goal is to increase that number to 25percent, said Principal Roger Fasting.

About 97percent of Pomona High's AVID students head to four-year colleges after graduation, he said.

Teachers Eva Morales-Vargas and Diana Rendon, who together coordinate the program, said the designation was an important milestone for past and present AVID students and faculty along with the school and the entire community.

In making the announcement, the AVID officials had a group of students roll out a large banner announcing the school's designation.

"It feels like a Super Bowl trophy - only better," said Rendon.

POMONA - Since 1995, Pomona High School's AVID program has provided students with the tools they need to succeed in high school as well as college.

Today, Pomona High will learn if it will be named an AVID National Demonstration School.

The recognition would mean that officials from other schools interested in starting or building up an AVID program can visit Pomona High to see how a successful program works, said Steven Baratta, a spokesman with the California AVID Center in San Diego.

Being named a National Demonstration School would do much for the school as well as the community, said several Pomona High students enrolled in AVID, or Advancement Via Individual Determination.

Not only would it be recognition of the efforts of current and past AVID students and faculty, but it would show people outside of the city that "Pomona isn't filled with gangs and pregnant teens," junior Eunice Chavarin said.

The AVID program aims to give young people the skills and support they need to help them get to college and succeed. Program teachers show students how to study, read for content, take notes and manage time. Students also participate in study groups or tutorials.

"The whole mission of AVID is to find the first generation of college-goers and give them the support they need to get there," Pomona High Principal Roger Fasting said.

Pomona High's program has grown in the past two years under Fasting's leadership.

Nationally, 90 percent of AVID students go on to college after high school. At Pomona High, 97 percent of AVID students go to four-year colleges, he said.

About 20 percent of the school's student body, or 340 students, are part of the program, said Eva Morales-Vargas, a teacher who coordinates the program with colleague Diana Rendon.

In the past, students were invited to attend the program but now they often ask to be part of it.

Limited space means some students end up on a waiting list.

Oftentimes, the program's students have average grades, but demonstrate they have the potential to achieve more. Once in the program, students work on organizational and study skills as well as have biweekly tutoring sessions.

During a recent tutoring session, groups of six students worked under the guidance of college students to tackle subjects such as advanced placement calculus, advanced placement statistics, anatomy, physiology, government and economics.

Each AVID student presented a question to the group that he or she was struggling with and, together, they figured out the answers with the help of their notes, texts and other educational resources.

Senior Daladros Tillett presented a chemistry question to his group. After reviewing the problem with the group, he found out why he wasn't coming up with the right answer - he left out a step in the calculation process.

"This is like a plus," he said. "It makes things a lot easier."

Among the things AVID does is help students learn to recognize there are times when they will need help mastering an academic concept. When that happens, students must know how to go about finding the help they need to overcome their struggles, senior Evelyn Godinez said.

"It's not a bad thing not to know. It's bad to not seek help," Chavarin said.

Junior Floyd Early said he heard about AVID from a cousin who participated in the program. Floyd enrolled in his sophomore year.

"I heard it was a program that helps you go to college, and I do want to go to college," he said.

Floyd said there is no history in his home of people attending college and he will be the first to do so in his immediate family.

Before AVID, Floyd said he thought he would finish high school, go to community college and get a job.

But through AVID, he has come to realize there are many more options.

"There's so much more for me to do," Floyd said.

His plans now include attending a four-year college, possibly UC Irvine or a historically black college. His career interests involve working with young people, either as a psychologist or as a pediatrician.

Floyd also sees his role at home changing. He now views himself as a role model for his two younger siblings and instilling in them a desire to pursue a college education.

Pomona High graduate Saul Del Real said AVID played a significant role in his success.

Del Real, who graduated from Pomona High in 2003, joined AVID as a freshman. While he was a hard-working student, he had questions about college that his parents couldn't answer because they had a limited education.

"I knew I wanted to go (to college) but I didn't know how to get there," Del Real said. Through AVID "they guided me as to what I needed" to do.

Not only was he clear on what classes he needed to take in order to meet college entrance requirements, he worked to improve in areas such as answering essay questions, visited college campuses and heard from speakers talk about their own college and professional experiences.

"They gave us the tools we needed," Del Real said.

Del Real said many of the tools came in handy when he enrolled at UC Santa Barbara, from where he would earn a degree in business economics and global studies.

Del Real, a resident of Manhattan Beach who recently became an international trade officer for a major banking institution, has returned to Pomona High to talk to students about his experiences.

"I would say AVID made a huge difference," he said. "I got a lot more exposure to opportunities."

Pomona Unified School District Superintendent Richard Martinez will be the guest speaker at Thursday's meeting of the Willie White Park Focus Group.

The group will meet from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Willie White Park Community Center, 3065 Battram St.

Martinez will talk about plans for the district's future, according to a statement from the group.

Also, in April the focus group's monthly meetings will move to the third Tuesday of the month.

The Willie White Park Focus Group is an organization of residents who live around Willie White Park who came together in the early 1990s to address issues associated with gangs and to improve the neighborhood.

The group meets monthly and schedules guest speakers representing various local and and state government officials and along with city offices and others.

For more information on the group or its meetings, call Melba Robinson at 909-596-4273 or M. Joyce Bakersmith at 909-392-8666.