Peninsula District OKs a Scaled-Down Budget

Faced with a continuing decline in enrollment, Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District board members have approved a tentative budget for the 1990-91 school year that is $1.9 million less than this year’s budget.

The board, by a 3-2 margin, adopted a $31.8-million budget Monday night after scaling back expenses districtwide. Although classroom cuts were largely averted, the budget calls for 28 teaching, counseling and administrative jobs to be eliminated through retirement.

Board members stressed that they could face the unpleasant task of making further cuts by September, when a final budget must be approved, because the tentative budget includes $760,000 in funds the district may not receive. Board members Joe Sanford and Brent Goodrich cast votes against the budget after voicing trepidation over relying on the funds.

“I voted against it because I have some questions and concerns about how solid some of the revenue assumptions are,” Goodrich said Tuesday. “ . . . The concern I have is whether there should be further cuts either implemented or put on the on-deck circle, so to speak.”

The job of balancing the district’s budget has become increasingly difficult as the district’s enrollment has declined from a peak of 17,800 students in 1973 to 8,949 currently. The district receives $3,043 per pupil in state funding, based on enrollment.

Because enrollment dropped by 385 students in the 1989-90 school year, compared to the previous year, the district expects to receive nearly $837,000 less next year. The district projects enrollment will dip by an additional 300 students next school year.

Several board members argued Monday night that the district must counteract these enrollment losses by moving quickly to close more campuses. In recent years, five elementary and two intermediate schools have been shut, leaving 13 campuses.

Board President Jack Bagdasar said in an interview that the district is facing the prospect of closing two or three of its eight elementary schools and combining its three high school campuses into one. Recently, the board voted to hire a consultant to determine the feasibility of converting one high school into a campus serving all high school students.

“We have to address the issue of consolidation as rapidly as we can,” Bagdasar said.

Any move to close additional schools is likely to be met with considerable community opposition. Already, the district is embroiled in a legal fight with the East Peninsula Education Council, a group of eastside parents, over the board’s decision in 1987 to close Miraleste High School. The district has been ordered by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge to prepare an environmental impact report on school closures districtwide before closing Miraleste or converting it into a different type of school.

Despite predictions by Bagdasar and other board members that school closures are inevitable, East Peninsula President Barry Hildebrand contended in an interview that the district could save more money by cutting its administrative ranks. Moreover, he said that, by closing more schools, the district may lose more children to private schools.

“I think the more they close, the more people they drive out,” Hildebrand said.

Besides eliminating the 28 teaching, administrative and counseling jobs, the tentative budget also cuts 27 clerical, secretarial and other non-teaching positions. Although the curriculum was not affected, the mandatory sixth period for high school juniors and seniors was eliminated and music programs at the elementary level were scaled back.

School officials said the tentative budget anticipates that the district will receive $360,000 from pending state legislation geared toward providing financial aid specifically for areas with declining enrollment.

In addition, the budget calls for the district to earn an estimated $300,000 by leasing Dapplegray Intermediate School, which has been vacant since it was closed in 1986. The district is obtaining lease proposals for the site.

The budget also provides for the district to pick up $1.55 million as its share of lottery receipts, $100,000 more than the state anticipates the district could get. District spokeswoman Nancy Mahr said the district has received more lottery money in previous years than the state had projected.

Board members have already discussed other possible cuts should the anticipated revenue fail to materialize. Those include having only four principals oversee the eight elementary schools, leaving vacant an assistant superintendent’s position, and eliminating some counseling and custodial positions.