It’s going to be a little sketchy for the Goleta Union School District, but with careful planning and cautious spending, not a whole lot is going to change for the students, GUSD Superintendent Kathy Boomer said to members of the Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce at a lunch meeting Thursday.

The school district, serving nine elementary schools in the Goleta Valley, took an estimated $400,000 to $500,000 hit to the categorical funds in its 2008-09 budget, which runs programs such as GATE, after-school programs and English language instruction for non-native speakers. The strategy the district intends to take, Boomer said, is one that maintains its status quo, with reserves to fill in the gap.

“We’re doing that because we don’t want to cut the programs for children, and because we have healthy reserves,” she said. There will be some reductions at the school sites, however.

“The district will try to keep everything the same in the global picture, but you might see a few more bake sales at the sites this next year,” she said.

The 32 temporary teachers the district recently gave notice to because of state budget issues have been brought back, and because of the retirement of several faculty members, 10 teachers from neighboring districts will be hired.

Still, the district most likely will have to navigate a funding gap from August to April, meaning certain programs would have to run on a promissory note from the state until they receive funds in April.

Boomer said the GUSD isn’t taking as hard a hit as other districts, such as the Santa Barbara School District, largely because of its status as a Basic Aid district in a community with relatively solid property taxes, as opposed to revenue-limit districts that rely also on state funding.

The Goleta district became a Basic Aid district in 2003, as property tax revenue increased and enrollment decreased.

Noozhawk staff writer Sonia Fernandez can be reached at sfernandez@noozhawk.com.