Santa Barbara School District Facing At Least Another $6 Million in Cuts

http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/012810_school_district_facing_at_least_6_million_in_cuts/

By Giana Magnoli, Noozhawk Staff Writer

Officials say there are plans to cut administrative, facilities and maintenance personnel

Eric Smith sat at his desk punching numbers into an adding machine until it printed out a final number — about $4 million.

That figure, equaling the cuts made by the Santa Barbara School District in 2007-08, was a symbol of things to come. About $4.4 million was cut last year, and $3.4 million was cut earlier this year in one-time reductions.

By the end of February, the district must cut $6 million from its 2010-11 budget, and it’s likely to face more reductions after the May revision of California’s budget, said Smith, the district’s deputy superintendent for business and noninstructional operations.

It’s a lot of numbers, but they add up to one thing: inescapable cuts to personnel.

While he can’t go into the reduction plan until it’s publicized Feb. 5 before the Board of Education meeting, Smith said there are plans to reduce administrative personnel in the district office and on the school site level. There also will be cuts to the facilities and maintenance staff.

He said there are plans for nonpersonnel reductions in operating costs — including finding new revenues, cutting inefficiencies and locating cost savings — but more than 80 percent of costs come from employees, so it’s difficult.

The lion’s share of the operating deficit will be in the secondary district, Smith said.

“We want to pursue cuts that have the least impact on classroom instruction, to the best of our ability,” District Superintendent Brian Sarvis said.

So far, district officials have been able to keep most of the cuts away from the classroom, except for increasing K-3 class sizes to a 25-to-1 ratio this year from 20-to-1.

“Teachers do what they’re so very good at — they adjust,” Sarvis said. “Thank God for good teachers.”

He said he doesn’t anticipate any major changes to class sizes with this round of cuts, and no major programs are on the chopping block. In addition, there are no midyear cuts this year (which would be about now), but the district expects the state budget crisis to affect it for at least the next five years.

Its mandated 3 percent reserves have helped weather the storms so far and provided a small cushion against new cuts, which come often.

Each January, districts get the anticipated budget from the governor’s office and have to create a budget around projections. Revisions to the state budget come in May — often with bad news — and the “real squabbling” is in June at the state level, Sarvis said.

The district’s budget is due at the end of June.

Some effects from the last round of cuts are being felt this year and will continue into next year, including the aforementioned increase in class sizes.

Interdistrict transfers are no longer allowed, but sixth- and 12th-graders and their siblings were allowed to stay for this year only, Sarvis said. Varsity athletes are allowed to stay at their schools as well, so they don’t lose their eligibility.

Intradistrict transfers — from school to school within the district — have not been affected.

The transition to basic-aid funding is another incentive to not allowing transfers.

The secondary district is likely to become basic aid — like every other district on the South Coast, including the elementary district — but seems to be on the cusp of it, Smith said.

Basic-aid districts receive funding based on property tax values, as long as that figure comes out to more than what the state is expected to give. There is a large revenue limit district deficit, so it’s likely the district will become basic aid even though local property tax values haven’t increased in recent years as they have historically. Until a few years ago, the elementary district’s property tax values rose about 7 percent per year, Smith said.

As to what will come for midyear cuts or the 2011-12 year, it’s anyone’s guess.

“It won’t be the end of it,” Sarvis said.

— Noozhawk staff writer Giana Magnoli can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

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