LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS ASSESS IMPACTS OF GOVERNOR’S MID-YEAR BUDGET CUTS

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By Jeremy Los

Dec. 14, 2011 (San Diego’s East County)--With a large budgetary gap on the horizon, Governor Brown announced $980 million in mid-year budget cuts on Tuesday. Colleges, libraries, and childcare facilities were hit with the hardest cuts, while K-12 education dodged the worst-case scenario that many districts had feared.

During a press conference, the Governor said that the rarely used mid-year budgetary action was taken because he expects the state to fall $2.2 billion short of the summer revenue forecast for the fiscal year. Effective February 1, K-12 education will have its general budget cut by $79.6 million; however, many districts expressed cautious relief, since they had planned for a potential $1.5 billion cut.

“We were pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been,” Scott Buxbaum, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services at Cajon Valley School District told ECM. “We looked at possibly losing $4 million but instead we will lose about $700,000 dollars… $460,000 of which is tied to transportation.”

Like many school districts around the state, Cajon Valley – a historically economically disadvantaged district – planned ahead and for the worst possible outcome. The district will cover the cuts by tapping into its reserve funds. “There will be no further reductions because of the cuts; there will be no teacher layoffs or increased class sizes,” said Buxbaum.

According to La Mesa- Spring Valley District Superintendent Brian Marshall, cuts to his District’s K-8 schools will amount to about $680,000. “Our original estimate for the size of the cuts (using the Legislative Analyst’s Office estimate) was $2.8 million,” he stated, according to La Mesa Patch.com.

La Mesa Patch also reported that the Grossmont High School District will have to absorb roughly $975,000 in spending cuts – $ 775,000 in transportation – as a result of the mid-year budget cut, according to Deputy Superintendent Scott Patterson.

“While some are saying that the mid-year trigger cuts could have been worse, our view is that any cut on top of those we have already suffered over the last three years is too much,” said Patterson.

Patterson voiced disappointment that the Home to School Transportation cut remained in place “because it disproportionately affects districts like Grossmont that provide this service. Over 700 regular education students and another 735 special education students rely on a bus ride each day to and from school in our district.”

Of the $980 million being slashed from the state’s budget, nearly $250 million will come from the elimination of school bus services funding. In order for districts to maintain bus services, they will have to make cuts to other areas or tap into reserve funds.

“Our reserves have to cover the shortfall,” Buxbaum says of the $460,000 lost in transportation funds for Cajon Valley School District. “We are not going to cut services right now. If we determine (in February) to keep bus services as is, then we will have to cut other services.”

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chief Tom Torlakson sharply criticized cuts in transportation funding for students. “Mothballing school bus fleets across the state will mean many rural, disabled, and low-income students literally will have no safe way to get to school. Children will lose child care, students will lose the opportunity for a college education, and our overcrowded classrooms will continue to be jammed with 35 to 40 students,” he said a press statement. “That’s not the kind of education or state we want. This is not the California our children deserve.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, Bernie Rhinerson, Chief Of Staff of the San Diego Unified School District, said his district could weather the cuts without reducing its bus program.

While K-12 dodged a bullet somewhat, deeper cuts could be on the horizon if voters fail to pass his $7 billion plan to increase sales tax, as well as income taxes on the wealthy. The Legislative Analyst’s Office projected budgetary gap to be around $12.8 billion, and Brown has stated that he will propose “far more than a billion,” in new cuts when he proposes his budget come January.

Brown’s mid-year budgetary purge also wipes $102 million off the books and out of the pockets of community colleges throughout the state. The reduction in funding will mean that students attending these campuses will see their per unit tuition cost jump $10, from $36 to $46 beginning in summer 2012. The fee increases are expected to stay permanent, according to California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott.

In a statement to district employees, acquired by ECM, Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District Chancellor Dr. Cindy Miles said, “For our district, this will mean a budget reduction of almost $6.3 million. Fortunately, we planned for the worst-case scenario when we prepared our $179 million budget that was approved in September. We don’t expect to make any further cuts on top of the many painful ones we’ve already had to take.”

The prior cuts spoken of include eliminating nearly 600 course sections at Grossmont and Cuyamaca colleges this year and reducing the summer schedule to one-fourth of what it was in 2009. The district also expects to serve almost 3,000 fewer students than last year as a result of the cuts.

Miles called cuts “extremely painful” adding, “It breaks my heart to know that we have to turn away so many students…We are now rationing education.”

 


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