Pasadena : School Budget Cuts Posed

Trustees of the Pasadena Unified School District are bracing for a possible $1.18-million budget shortfall that would result from cuts in the state’s 1986-87 budget. Gov. George Deukmejian has blue-penciled the state’s urban impact aid program, which was to have provided $70 million for urban school districts with high minority enrollments.

School board president Noel Hatch said the program’s elimination would be particularly devastating to urban school districts that have depended on the aid, while districts in affluent suburban areas with few minority students would be able to “stand pat” with their proposed 1986-87 budgets. Hatch called on parents and teachers to join in a letter-writing campaign to state legislators. “I find it very difficult, especially in an election year, to contemplate that somebody isn’t going to make a move to restore that money,” Hatch said.

Just in case that does not happen, Hatch has asked Supt. Phillip Jordan to prepare a report on the impact the cuts would have on the district’s $73-million budget. At their meeting this week, board members said their highest budget priorities are campus security and transportation for special education students.