From the time Liang Chao and Kristen Pan Lyn left CUSD board, the reserve funds became more than Tripled. But three current board members didn’t think about using the funding to benefit schools and students, on the contrary, they closed THREE schools during the pandemic in the name of “saving money”.
These board members blame “lack of funding” for closing schools while holding a $45 million budget surplus in 2021, already the highest in Santa Clara County.
Even after CUSD gave teachers a 13% raise in 2022, CUSD still has so much money left. Now, we don’t need to complain that CUSD teachers earned less than other districts. But what about students? Is it wise to close 3 neighborhood schools in such a hurry just to save $0.4M each school per year?
Closing a school only saves a few hundred thousand per year, and we are still not sure if unused school land can be leased since the board never had such study before they decided to close schools. It’s completely irresponsible.
Bad news from nearby district, San Jose plans to sell a closed school since they can’t find a good renter there.
They wasted $2 million of district funds on failed parcel tax measures in 2019 and 2020. Yet they planned for a third try this year! Jerry and Satheesh opposed strongly in school board meetings in June 2022. To put a tax measure on the ballot there must be at least four votes supporting it, that’s why they gave up this crazy idea in June. (But closing school only needs 3 votes, that’s why Jerry Liu + Satheesh Madhathil can’t stop them)
When CUSD district complained about funding shortage and enrollment decline, they still spent millions on hiring new staff.