Burbank City Council and Burbank Unified school board discuss potential impacts of budget deficit
The looming budget deficit in Burbank has city officials scrambling to find short-term and long-term solutions. However, some of the recommended actions city staff members have presented to the City Council are not getting support from local school officials.
Council members hosted a joint meeting with the Burbank Unified school board on Tuesday, when they discussed how the budget shortfalls could impact both agencies.
Most of the night’s discussion was focused on the number of permitted students in the district who do not live in Burbank and the possibility of cutting the city’s crossing guard program at the schools.
Council members Jess Talamantes and Bob Frutos both had concerns about the number of students who attend Burbank public schools but do not live within the city’s boundaries.
Talamantes and Frutos said they have received comments from families who have recently moved to Burbank and were unable to enroll their child in the school nearest to them because of the impact future residential developments have on Burbank Unified.
Supt. Matt Hill said the district works with a demographer every year to determine the possible number of seats that should be allocated to students who live in the city. However, that number is affected by upcoming residential projects, and the school officials must analyze how those additional housing units will impact schools.
“We have some neighborhood schools that are capped and that depends on the grade classroom size,” Hill said. He added that the district is required by 2021 to have a ratio of 24 students per teacher in kindergarten through the third grade.
If a school begins to exceed that ratio, Hill said some families will need to enroll their child at another school that is not yet at capacity.
Regarding interdistrict permits that allow students who live outside of Burbank to enroll in local schools because a parent works in the city, Hill said the district’s policy is to take in those students who live within city limits before those who do not.
However, Hill added that the number of students who live in Burbank has been decreasing. Also impacting enrollment, Hill said, is the district’s practice of allowing students with an interdistrict permit to continue their education through Burbank Unified’s system if they have already started at a Burbank public school.
Talamantes asked the district to look into this policy, noting that Burbank taxpayers are paying for students who do not live in the city.
“Because the residents are paying everything for the school, the person that’s coming from outside the city [is not],” Talamantes said.
Burbank Unified has approved about 1,300 interdistrict permits for the current school year to keep enrollment numbers flat, Hill said.
Because of the large systemic deficit the city is facing, Burbank city staff earlier this month suggested several cuts that could be made to balance the city’s budget.
One of the proposed cuts involved the elimination of the Burbank Police Department’s crossing guard program at schools, which is estimated to save the city about $465,000 annually.
To save money but still provide the service, Frutos asked if it was possible to train volunteers or parents to fill in for crossing-guard duty.
The suggested cut did not sit well with Hill, who said he was concerned about having volunteers in those safety roles.
“For the school district, our responsibility for the students [occurs] once they enter our schools during a school day until they leave the campus,” Hill said. “But crossing the street to [and from school], that’s a risk and a liability that school districts don’t take. So to start hiring employees or volunteers to be managing that without a trained crossing guard there is concerning to me.”
anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com
Twitter: @acocarpio
