State Cuts Force Oxnard Schools to Use Reserves

Oxnard Elementary School District officials predicted Wednesday that last-minute state budget cuts will force them to use about $1.4 million in reserve funds to keep the district’s year-round program afloat in the upcoming school year.

That amount is nearly 60% of the $2.4 million that the district had expected to have in reserve during the year.

The money to pay for year-round schools would come from the district’s share of state lottery funds, officials said.

In addition, other cuts--including possible layoffs of non-teaching personnel--might be necessary to keep the remaining $1 million in the reserve, officials said.

Oxnard Supt. Norman R. Brekke said the district will lose at least $2.6 million from its $50-million budget because of cuts to public school programs.

At least $1.5 million of that loss will be from the year-round school incentive program, he said.

Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed $480 million for public school and community college programs, including $51 million statewide for the incentive program.

“That’s devastating to us,” Brekke said.

“What confounds me most is the state is desperately in need of generating additional seating capacity in its schools,” Brekke added.

Oxnard is the only district in the county to receive funds from the incentive program.

The program gives money to districts that use a year-round calendar to ease overcrowding.

Ventura and Fillmore unified school districts also have year-round programs but did not institute them because of overcrowding.

“Using lottery money is a one-time bailout,” said Ardyce M. Driskill, assistant superintendent for business and fiscal services.

Driskill said the district “might be forced to give notice to some classified positions” and might have to restructure its budget for the 1991-92 school year.

Classified employees include clerical and maintenance workers, bus drivers and teaching assistants.

But Oxnard officials said the year-round program, which allows the district to accommodate an additional 1,800 students, will continue. “We can’t go back to a traditional calendar,” Brekke said.

Also of concern to public school districts was the governor’s reduction of their cost-of-living budget increases from the 4.76% proposed by the Legislature to 3%.

However, most Ventura County districts had based their projected budgets on the lower 3% increase, said school officials in Ventura County.

Other county districts were scrambling to get estimates of how much they will lose as a result of the governor’s 11th-hour cuts.

William R. Seaver, superintendent of the Conejo Valley Unified School District, said his district will lose nearly $800,000 in state income because of the reduced cost-of-living increase.

“Pretty much everything the governor did affected the education budget in a negative way,” said Ken Prosser, director of school business and advisory services in the office of the Ventura County Superintendent of Schools.

School officials said they would have a better idea of the effect of the budget on their districts after several budget workshops next week.

“I don’t want to be Chicken Little and say the sky is falling until we know how far it’s falling,” Seaver said.