School budget under review again

For the second time since Assembly Bill 1200 was passed in 1991, the Las Virgenes Unified School District (LVUSD) filed a "qualified" interim budget with state officials to explain why the district has not raised its financial reserves to the mandated 3 percent.

The assembly bill was created to ensure that local school districts in California are adequately prepared to meet their financial obligations.

The law requires school districts to maintain reserves that equal 3 percent of their budget.

According to LVUSD Deputy Superintendent Donald Zimring, school districts were allowed to dip below the 3 percent budget reserve in the previous two years because of shortfalls in state funding. But school districts were told they had to return their reserves to the required minimum level in the 2005-2006 school year.

LVUSD's reserve level dipped to 2.62 percent at the end of last year, $329,700 short of the 3 percent level.

Superintendent Sandra Smyser said the state's school funding formula lumps elementary schools and high schools in the same category and doesn't take into account the higher cost of secondary education.

"Unfortunately we get to be the poster child for financial difficulties with the formula the way we are funded," Smyser said. The irony of the situation is that the district's current budget is within $53,000 of being a balanced budget-a "huge achievement," according to Zimring.

He said the district expects to build its reserves without any further cuts or reductions because the governor's current proposal promises to bring more than $4 million in revenue back to the school district.

-Stephanie Bertholdo