ABC School Board Deals With Budget Woes

The ABC School Board met on February 7 for its first meeting of the month and went over contingency plans for the upcoming budget cuts the district will face this year.

Dr. Mary Sieu, as Deputy Superintendent, said the education funding remains at risk for fifth straight consecutive year.

"The largest challenge for us, in building this budget, will be the dependence of a budget proposal that's going to be also reliant on a temporary tax initiative that would be passed in November," Sieu explained. "As the result of a lack of clarity, we're going to be required to develop two contingency plans," she said.

Information Item - State of the State/Contingency Plans – as presented by Chief Financial Officer Toan Nguyen

Governor Jerry Brown's budget proposal will only provide funding reduction in the ABC School District if voters approve a tax initiative. If the tax initiative is not approved, funding will be reduced by an additional $7,400,000.

Including statutory COLA, ABC's budget was cut by $57,000,000.

In response, ABC implented furlough days, cut budgets to programs and personnel, and also used federal stimulus funds.

Proposed Budget Contingency Plan A: If the voters approve the Governor's tax initiative, Plan A may be implemented with the following deficit:

1. Transportation Funding Elimination – $1,200,000
2. Estimated Step and Column - $600,000
3. Estimated Health Benefits Increase - $1,200,000
4. Structural Deficit - $5,486,000
5. Total General Fund Deficit - $8,486,000

Proposed Budget Contingency Plan B: If the voters reject the Governor's tax initiative, Plan B may be implemented with the following deficit:

1. Transportation Funding Elimination - $1,200,000
2. Additional Funding Reduction ($370/student) - $7,400,000
3. Estimated Step and Column Cost - $600,000
4. Estimated Health Benefits Increase - $1,200,000
5. Structural Deficit - $5,486,000
6. Total General Fund Deficit - $15,886,000

"This is very depressing," said board member Celia Spitzer. "How do we adopt something when we have absolutely no idea what the amounts are going to be? A contingency would be if the governor's tax plan either is or is not adopted in November," she said.

Board president Olypia Chen said it is still a guessing game since the upcoming budget cut numbers art not definite yet.  However, the county requires the district to submit a contingency plan for the budget cuts without any knowledge of actual numbers.

The next school board meeting will be held this evening.