Cuts Loom for Schools As Lottery Sales Fall : Education: Officials suggest that districts plan on getting $155 per pupil in revenues for the year, rather than the $170 originally projected.

Dwindling lottery ticket sales have forced Ventura County school officials to brace for midyear budget cuts of as much as $500,000.

Administrators had been told earlier by state officials to bank on near-record lottery subsidies this school year, but sales are nearly 25% off the expected pace. Items from instructional material to classroom furniture to computers may face the ax if sales remain weak.

“There is a hope that the lottery will recover,” said Cathi Vogel, interim superintendent in the Simi Valley Unified School District, which stands to lose $350,000 at the current sales rate. “At this point, it’s watch and watch very carefully.”

Lottery revenues finance less than 4% of the state’s education spending. However, many districts that first used the money for special purchases have in recent years tapped the subsidies for operating expenses, making many daily classroom programs dependent on an unstable revenue source.

District finance officers said they expect to receive about $31 per student from the $533 million in lottery tickets sold statewide in July, August and September, during which sales dropped nearly 10%. That subsidy would be the lowest in three years, and 33% less than the same period a year ago.

School officials said sales declined when the state expanded its pick-six Lotto from a field of 49 to 53 numbers on June 23. The change was intended to generate record jackpots--and thus sales--but neither materialized as many players balked at the greater odds of losing.

Joanne McNabb, a lottery commission spokeswoman, acknowledged that Lotto sales dropped after the switch but said they have been on the rebound in recent weeks.

Ken Prosser, of the county superintendent of school’s office, is recommending nonetheless that districts amend their budgets and plan on getting $155 per pupil in lottery revenues for the school year, rather than the $170 that state officials had projected. The state’s projection was just shy of the record $178-per-pupil subsidy in the 1988-89 school year, and greater than the $163 subsidy last year.

Prosser said Wednesday that districts may not even get $155, based on the expected subsidy for July to September, which would amount to $125 over 12 months.

Tom Kimberling, an administrator with the Ventura County Community College District, said the colleges will come up about $600,000 short of projected revenues if lottery sales continue throughout the year at present rates.

That shortfall in a $64-million budget would require the elimination of some low-enrollment classes, delays in hiring for vacant positions and postponement of equipment purchases, said Kimberling, vice chancellor for administrative services.

“If we had to cut 1% of our budget in midyear, it certainly would be felt,” Kimberling said.

The Ojai Unified School District, which received about $500,000 from the lottery last year, has been using 80% of its subsidies for ongoing expenses, Assistant Supt. Leo T. Molitor said.

Unless lottery sales rebound, Molitor said, the district could lose the other 20%, along with about $100,000 of classroom furniture and instructional material scheduled for purchase early next year.

Robert A. Brown, business manager for the Oxnard Elementary School District, said the county’s children are paying the price for the actions of politicians who staked part of their education on a game of chance.

“The fact that the lottery is down, it’s happened,” Brown said. “I get more upset at the governor. He has been able to knock out a lot more from us with his blue pencil.”