Budgeting

My community partner is reliant on the state government and the local government to provide money for the program. Currently, my community partner is without the money and resources to be able to perform her job effectively. The state government makes the overall budget that will give money to state-wide education. This money tends to be reserved more for Title I, Title III, and other specific education programs. Many of the students at Valley Oak are designated as Title I as they come from low socio-economic backgrounds. Even though the school receives extra funding for these students, it is usually not directed towards programs such as P.E. At the local level, the school is funded based on the money allotted by the local government. Most of the money for education is raised through property taxes at the local level. I am not sure what kind of budgeting method that the Board of Education uses to allocate funds to schools and certain programs. Regardless, Valley Oak would request money from the Napa Unified School District Board of Education to carry out its duties. Valley Oak could try to specifically request money to buy a certain type of P.E. equipment as a one-time request (although it is not a large amount of money) or it could ask for a certain amount of money to be set aside for the P.E. program. It should also make a case for why there needs to be money specifically set aside for this P.E. program. My Community Partner could bring to the School Board’s attention that P.E. is an effective and healthy outlet for many of these students. This could be a way to receive more funding by making sure they know how important it is to keep properly funded.

As my community partner has only been with Valley Oak for this school year, I am unable to find out if she specifically has to ask for funding from the budget. I am pretty sure that the administrators of her school propose a budget to the School Board. Because she has recently gotten comments from various administrators and other outsiders about the work she has done with the students, she is hoping that they will recognize the need for more funding in the following school year. This is the first step to hopefully getting additional funding directly from the school district. Unfortunately, the School Board does not have P.E. as a priority on their budget. They, instead, are more concerned with raising test scores in English, math and science. I believe that the school reapplies for a budget for every school year. They should review the budget from the previous year and see how the funds were used and if the ideal results occurred. My community partner is virtually fully dependent on the school district for all of its funding needs.

I think there is a lack of consistency with budgeting in the most recent school years. Because of the recent recession and cuts to education, schools have had no choice but to make drastic cuts in its programs. Performing Arts, Fine Arts and Physical Education always seem to be the first programs that experience the chopping block in some way. Physical Education has experienced budget cuts by seeing cuts to equipment funding. My community partner has especially experienced this cut because she does not have the proper equipment to be able to effectively run her classes. The majority of the time she has to modify her lessons or borrow equipment from other schools because she does not have what she needs.

The Judicary

                My community partner does not directly work with the judicial process to resolve problems, nor does she work with the prison system in any way. The closest thing to using the judicial system is the fact that many of the students at this alternative school have been in previous run-ins with the law. Also, students may face having to go through the judicial process to resolve any truancy issues, as it is punishable by law. However, this all takes place at the most local system of the judiciary branch.

                I think it is interesting to look at the various ways in which judges are appointed to positions whether it is at the local or state level. Many states use the merit system which is used to combine the nominating of a judge, the approval from the governor and then accountability by the citizens. There are also variations on this merit plan that will adapt to the state’s needs. The merit system is interesting because it incorporates the elements of non-partisanship and accountability by the people. I think that it is important for judges to be held accountable by the people because otherwise the people cannot speak their voice about how their feel about certain issues. However, most voters do not attempt to get rid of the incumbent judge unless it is a controversial issue that is decided in a unfavorable way. It must be a high-profile issue and decision in order to vote a judge out.

                In the case of judges who are only appointed by the governor, there seem to be accountability problems. That judge is only really accountable to the individual who put that judge into office. A gubernational appointment can also be seen as a political favor by appointing someone that the governor may own. An appointment can also be used to satisfy party leaders or voters in certain regions. According to the author, the gubernational process is actually the most common way for a judge to be appointed to an appellate or major trial court. There is no accountability to the voters in this method of appointment because they are not subject to an election. In addition, even if a state uses the merit system, a governor has the ability to appoint a new judge in an internment term after one retires. This will give a judge incumbency to help them be more likely to be elected.

                For those states that elect judges into their appointment, there are also problems. There is often a lot of campaign funding that comes into play. This can subject an election to bias based on the amount of money that one candidate may have. There is also low voter turn out to elect judges because it is not a position that is really in the spotlight. In addition, campaign money will often come from individuals that are heavily invested in the outcome. For example, major law firms, corporations and lawyers may contribute to the judge that will most heavily favor them because they will have to deal with them in court. These individuals will want to have a person in the judge’s seat that is going to rule in their favor. In this way, the election of a judge could be a reflection of the opinion of a few individuals as opposed to being that of the majority.

                The most important thing to learn here is that the appointments in the judicial branch should be free from partisanship, money, favors and any other biases that could occur. Money in the election of judges could corrupt the system. In addition, the appointment of judges by political favor could also corrupt the system if it is done from a partisan stand point. Regardless, personal opinions and views will always come into play in the minds of the judges. The important thing is appointing someone to be judge who will do their best to rule by the law and not by their own bias.

Interactions with Local Government

School districts are one of the six different types of local governments. They are also known as single district local governments because they generally have jurisdiction over part of a city or even multiple counties. In recent years, there have been a shrinking number of school districts because the operating cost to run them can be too great. Valley Oak High School interacts with the Napa Valley Unified School District. NVUSD decides the funding that Valley Oak will receive and for what specific programs in the school it will go to. Schools are usually allotted money on a per pupil basis which means that a smaller school like Valley Oak will not receive as much funding as other schools. In addition, schools usually receive money based on daily attendance. Because many of the students at Valley Oak have left regular high school because of truancy issues, it may be hard for the school to find extra money that they can give to programs such as P.E. In the case P.E. at Valley Oak, the decision to create a P.E./health program that will teach various sports was made by various administrators in the school. The administrators in the school are connected directly to the NVUSD School Board because the administrators are appointed by this group of 5-7 members. The administrators of Valley Oak, however, do not have control of the purse strings so they cannot give additional funding to my sister. The decision for the P.E. program at Valley Oak to receive more funding must come from the school board. The school board is in charge of making basic policy decisions and how money is spent. The school board also has the power to raise property taxes which are used to fund schools. If my sister were able to make the case for how important P.E. has been for the alternative school students, the school district decide to give her program more money. They could raise this money by raising the property taxes if they needed to. I do not know of any specific person that has had a key influence on my community partner. Although the administrators and principal of the school are not directly elected, they are hired by the school board. In this way, I could argue that the principal and administrators of the school have been the ones that have been the biggest advocates for my sister. She has recently gotten compliments from the principal of Valley Oak and a few other administrators about my sister’s ability to get things done. Since she first arrived at Valley Oak, my sister has been able to convince the nearby Boys and Girls Club to allow her to use their gym on a daily basis. She also has a key to their building. This has greatly helped her because she now has an indoor facility that she can use when it is raining outside. She also has gained access to some of their equipment. By partnering with other community groups, she has been able to get some things accomplished. She has also gotten compliments from the principal and school administrators about how much the students like her class and how they now see more students excited about going to class. If she can continue to show this success, I think she will be able to gain the support of influential people in the school district. This may be a relationship that will gain her more funding.

In the case of alternative high schools, they also serve students from across several districts. In a number of cases, students will come from a bordering district because they have been expelled from the district in which they live. This means that their requirement to continue in school must be completed in another school district. For example, she has several students from Fairfield, which is part of the Solano County School District. I am not sure what happens with funding when your school agrees to teach a student from an outside district. I imagine that the other school district will send money for that student to the school that they are now at. I also want to mention that the majority of the money that schools receive are from the local school district. Only a small portion of funding comes from the state or federal government and most of that money is directed at a specific program. In this way, it is important for my community partner to try to convince at the most local level that she needs more money.