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The governor's May revision to the state budget was a major victory for basic aid districts like the Sunnyvale School District and the Fremont Union High School District. However, the local school administrations won't be making many changes to their budget proposals because they've been expecting this move by the state for some time.
The Sunnyvale School District did not take the worst-case scenario when forming the school budget, according to deputy superintendent Benjamin Picard. He said the district assumed that the state would not seize the property taxes of basic aid districts.
Gov. Gray Davis originally proposed taking away a large percentage of the property tax revenue that schools in high-end residential real-estate areas currently receive. He also proposed holding back the $120 the districts receive per student based on an average daily attendance.
The May revision gives property tax revenues back to these schools but still takes away the $120 per student, which is what Picard and the budget committee had assumed would happen.
That's why there won't be many changes to the district's proposed budget—except to cut more expenditures as necessary. The district still needs to reduce its budget by about $360,000 to keep up with the state's budget proposals.
As part of cutting expenses, the school board approved a resolution at their last meeting to cut several classified staff positions. These classified employees received layoff notices in May, including six bilingual aides and one bus driver. Other employees received notice of a reduction in work hours.
"Depending on how things work out in the state, we may be able to reinstate some of those positions, but we don't know," said Linda Kilian, school board president.
Extra funds may be available to cushion the blow for some employees. The year-end property tax revenue has been higher than budgeted, Kilian said. In addition, the district made several mid-year cuts in January when word of the state budget came around, and the savings from those cuts hasn't been ascertained, said Kilian. "We don't know our year-end balance, but when we figure that out we may be able to save some programs," Kilian said.
But the district is still working in the dark.
"We have to approve our budget before the state has approved theirs, so our decisions are based on what we think they're going to do," said Kilian.
Recently the state has seen a push to get the budget approved by June, but Kilian suspects it may be as late as August before the state approves a final budget.
The school board will meet on June 19 at 7:30 p.m. to adopt a final budget. The board meeting will be held at 819 W. Iowa Ave. in Sunnyvale.
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