State budget will hit hard public schools
By John Loesing
Acorn Staff Writer

Las Virgenes Unified School District (LVUSD) will have to scramble to assume its share of the proposed $843.5 million in education budget cuts proposed recently by Gov. Gray Davis.

Because of the slumping economy, LVUSD has been told to expect $668,000 in mid-year reductions for its kindergarten through 12th grade classrooms.

Worried that California is facing its steepest decline in income in more than a decade, the governor announced $2.25 billion in total statewide cuts that he hopes will be enacted during a special session of the legislature in January. In October alone, general fund revenues were $220 million below the budgeted forecast, according to the governor’s office.

In the aftermath of Sept. 11, Davis ordered a state hiring freeze and immediate cuts in operational expenses. Further cuts are expected next spring as talks heat up over the 2002-2003 budget.

LVUSD officials expected the worst, but were still caught off guard as they assessed the impact on local schools.

"The idea of cutting back a budget after it’s been adopted has in my understanding never occurred," said Donald Zimring, LVUSD deputy superintendent. "It presents just an unbelievable number of problems because agencies, not just school districts, sign contracts, change pay schedules, initiate work based on an adopted state budget and if that budget changes, how do we get out of contracts? We can’t."

The school district figures on losing $406,000 in energy cost reimbursements and $140,000 in kindergarten through 12th grade block grant funds used for a variety of educational programs. Additional cuts amount to $122,000.

"I will be making specific recommendations to the superintendent and the board [of education] for consideration of a variety of measures which will likely include freezes on hiring and reductions in non-essential services where possible," Zimring told his staff.

"The sky is not falling, but it certainly is a lot more cloudy that we expected just [a few] days ago," Zimring said. LVUSD budget reserves would fall below the 3 percent level for the first time in more than a decade if the cuts are enacted. LVUSD’s annual budget is $77 million and all but a small portion of the revenues come from Sacramento.

Zimring was scheduled to meet with state education officials this week to discuss the cuts.

The reductions represent a dramatic turnaround in the constant ebb and flow of the state educational funding process.

Just a year ago the governor gave California schools a nearly $2 billion boost to make up for years of underpayment resulting from recession in the 1990s. LVUSD received a $5 million windfall that went toward teacher salaries and other educational needs.