Schools See Few Ways of Making Budget Cuts : Education: Under the governor’s preliminary plan, districts countywide would lose funding. Officials say there’s no spending fat left to trim.

When school administrators across Ventura County talk about budget cuts and the worsening financial picture for public education, the macabre image of a skeleton keeps cropping up.

“We’re really down to the bare bones,” said Supt. Robert Allen of the 2,400-student Ocean View School District in Oxnard, where last year’s cutbacks included eliminating school-paid field trips, reducing classroom supplies, not paying for professional conferences for teachers and administrators, and allowing four teaching positions to go unfilled.

If Proposition 98 is suspended, as Gov. Pete Wilson has proposed in his preliminary budget, school districts countywide can expect to lose money. For example, the 31-student Santa Clara District could lose $4,030, and the more than 18,000-student Simi Valley Unified School District could lose nearly $2.5 million. Oxnard Union High School District, which has more than 11,000 students, could lose more than $1.65 million.

Tamara McCracken, who manages business at four of the county’s smallest districts--Briggs, Mesa Union, Somis Union and Santa Clara--said all but Santa Clara will be deciding where to make cuts in the next three weeks.

“Our main problem is we’ve had to make cuts the last two years, so it’s down to bare bones,” said McCracken, who said the Mesa Union and Somis districts have already formed food and transportation cooperatives to cut costs.

“There’s just not a lot left to cut,” McCracken said. “At this point, it might hit the classroom.”

Last year, the state gave schools a 3% cost-of-living raise when they had hoped for a 4.76% increase. That reduction forced school districts to slash expenses to a minimum, some school officials said. In West Coast cities, the cost of living increased about 5% between July, 1989, and July, 1990, according to government figures.

This year, schools may get no cost-of-living increase at all.

In his proposed budget last month, Wilson suggested cuts to public schools amounting to about $2 billion over the next 18 months. Statewide, schools could lose another $1.4 billion in 1991-92 if Proposition 98 is suspended.

The proposed cuts would drop per-pupil spending for all public schools next year from about $4,800 to $4,076 per student annually, the lowest level of state support to public education since 1985. The drop is especially precipitous when measured against inflation and rising expenses, school officials said.

In Ventura County, many school officials said they are already at minimum levels for teacher staffing, supplies and other expenses. Further cuts may mean increases in class size, less frequent cleaning of classrooms and schoolyards, and layoffs of teachers and staff--particularly those whose salaries come from specially funded programs, some school officials said.

“I wonder if our public realizes how far behind we’re falling in this state” compared to other states, Allen said. “There’s something wrong.” According to the U.S. Department of Education, average class size in California is among the highest in the country and per-pupil expenditure ranks about 30th.

This week, many county school officials will begin meeting to put exact dollar amounts on projected losses if Proposition 98 is suspended. Passed in 1988, Proposition 98 guarantees at least 40% of state general fund revenues to public schools and community colleges. Suspension would require a two-thirds vote by both houses of the Legislature.

A committee in the Santa Paula elementary school district is meeting Wednesday to make recommendations on where to cut. And officials in Hueneme, in Camarillo’s Pleasant Valley and in Ojai Unified said they will release figures beginning this week on the amounts of projected budget shortfalls.

“We know it’s going to be bleak,” said Ojai Assistant Supt. Leo T. Molitor. “It’s not a question of whether we have a problem; it’s how the big the problem is, and we haven’t calculated that yet.”

In nine other school districts that have already calculated the projected gaps between revenue and expenses, losses amount to at least $15 million.

Under Proposition 98, public schools would receive a 4.47% cost-of-living increase in the 1991-92 school year, said Ken Prosser, director of school business and advisory services for the county superintendent of schools office.

That increase would come to about $130 per student in elementary districts, $138 per student in unified school districts and $150 per student in high school districts, based on average daily attendance figures, Prosser said.

Such projections would not include losses from cuts to other programs such as transportation or special education, Prosser said.

School districts also are bracing for financial blows from reduced revenues from the state lottery, which have decreased to about $115 per student a year from more than $190 per student a year when the lottery began more than six years ago.

Plus, the county has sent bills for property tax collection totaling nearly $3.4 million for all the county’s school districts. Although the bills are due March 1, many districts are reportedly sending them back to the county pending the outcome of a class-action suit filed by districts around the state.

Even though schools will not receive funding increases in 1991-92, expenses and inflation will continue to increase, Prosser said.

“Utilities, supplies, medical insurance, salaries and other fixed costs are going to rise, and how are they going to pay for it?” Prosser asked. “They’re going to have to make cuts somewhere to pay for some of those fixed costs. . .. Existing programs will have to be pared back.”

Most school officials said cutting instructional programs is a last resort.

In the Hueneme School District, “we will definitely have to make cuts at the district office and in maintenance,” said Jeffrey L. Baarstad, administrative assistant. “But we’re trying to make cuts as far away from the classroom as possible.”

The amount of Hueneme’s cutbacks will be presented to the board tonight in a special study session, Baarstad said.

Unless funding comes through, officials said, some districts may not be able to avoid layoffs.

In the Oxnard School District, for example, up to 20 layoff notices may be sent to district employees by March 1, district officials said.

And in Conejo Valley, if the district loses $3 million as it projects in its worst-case scenario, “we’re going to be looking at personnel reductions,” Supt. William R. Seaver said. “We’ll try to keep it to a minimum.”

If such measures become necessary, temporary employees likely will be the first to go, he said.

Some districts’ officials said they will make it through the 1991-92 school year without significant problems, but the real trouble may come if the funding shortfalls continue.

“We’re going to plod along next year with nothing, same as this year,” said Barbara Spieler, business services director of the Fillmore Unified School District. “We’ll just limp through the year. But if we don’t get a cost-of-living increase next year, then we’ll really have a problem.”

PROJECTED SCHOOL DISTRICT LOSSES

Figures for select school district: Simi Valley Unified: $2 million to $5 million Conejo Valley Unified: $2.5 million to $3 million Ventura Unified: $3.2 million Oxnard Elementary: $2.8 million Moorpark Unified: $800,000 Santa Paula Elementary: $500,000 to $600,000 Mesa Union: $25,000 Somis Union: $25,000 Briggs Elementary: $25,000