On Jan. 22, leaders from the California Department of Education reached out to Tri-City Voice for clarifications concerning recent articles about the California School for the Deaf in Fremont. California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond vowed to continue working to find solutions to the school’s financial challenges.
“This school is not going to close, we’re not going to allow that,” said Thurmond. “We are committed to doing anything that we can to help this school. Great staff works here, and we’re grateful for them. We have great students, great families. There’s no question that the staff deserve to be paid more. We are continually looking for ways to find the money to support staff, and we are committed to that.”
Thurmond explained that schools are funded essentially by decisions made by the Department of Finance and the state budget. The California Department of Education (CDE) has almost no ability to influence funding for salaries or equipment resources in any way, he said. “But we are willing to advocate, and have been advocating, for increasing the salaries,” said Thurmond.
Last year, Thurmond sponsored a bill, SB 1316, directly calling for the legislature and the governor to put more money into the budget to fund increasing salaries for the staff at the school in Fremont. However, given the state’s deficit last year, the bill did not get signed into law.
“But we are still looking for ways to help the state provide more revenue,” said Thurmond, “and we will continue to advocate for that because we value the staff there and we understand they’re in a high-cost area and they deserve to have better compensation.”
Since that bill, Thurmond says he has initiated additional conversations with the senator, and with the state’s human resources department. He is also speaking directly with concerned parents and brainstorming strategies for how to work through the situation.
“It is a decades-long challenge, and it’s reaching a critical point,” said Thurmond. “But in spite of that, we’re not going to let this school close. This school is so important for the students and families.”
Thurmond says he has advocated for the last five years for more funding at different times for all of the state’s special schools. “We have advocated to get more money for facilities,” said Thurmond. “We’ve advocated for more money to get wages. We’re one voice in the process, and we don’t get to make the decision, but we won’t stop until we help the state land on a better way to support these schools.”
