Quote of the week

I talked to Dave Pickering, director of Tracy Adult School, this week to ascertain the health of the program. He said that though the adult school's 2010-11 budget will be cut 75 percent by Tracy Unified School District, prudent fiscal planning will enable the school to subsist on about $600,000 this year. Without the money saved from 2009-10, the school would be looking at a budget of almost half that.

But, I thought, that savings is only good for one year. So, I asked, what happens to the adult school if its budget isn't increased next year? Pickering's answer:

"We’re doing the best we can with what we have, and we just have to hope for better times ahead. If they’re not, it’s going to be catastrophic to a lot more than just the adult school.”