HUNTINGTON BEACH : Schools Use Reserves to Balance Budget

Faced with similar budget crunches, two elementary school boards are dipping into reserve funds to help balance their 1990-91 spending plans.

The Ocean View School District board voted 4 to 1 to give final approval to a $37.4-million budget for the coming year, pulling more than $1 million from its special-reserve account to bridge a spending shortfall.

Meanwhile, the Huntington Beach City School District board, which faces a less serious financial crisis than does Ocean View, unanimously agreed to draw $202,000 out of its reserves to balance the $20.7-million budget it approved for this school year.

Both districts are maintaining reserve balances of just over 3% of the total budget, the minimum level allowed by the state.

Huntington Beach City should easily recover its reserve spending with a state supplemental grant that has not yet been included in the budget, Interim Supt. Gary Burgner said. His district was not compelled to slash spending like Ocean View.

None of Ocean View’s spending cuts came from school programs. Instead, the board eliminated the equivalent of 11 full-time employee positions, mainly targeting administrative clerical posts and maintenance jobs. The board also reduced spending on office supplies and saved additional money from several school services that had been phased out.

Trustee Elizabeth A. Spurlock, who voted against the new budget, criticized her colleagues for adopting a plan she said hinges upon “deficit spending” and enhances only one educational program.

“It is time that this board begins acting in a fiscally responsible way instead of putting off (further administrative cuts) and believing next year will be somehow better,” she said. “Deficit spending this year cuts back on spending in all the years to come.”

Other trustees defended the new budget, however, saying that the administrative cuts were dramatic, and that the district’s relatively high test scores prove that its educational programs already are excellent.

Board President Charles Osterlund, however, characterized the spending plan as “a compromise that I don’t think anybody really wanted.”