Even Schools of Affluent Face Major Shortfall : Education: It has no gangs, but the Las Virgenes district isn’t immune to the vagaries of state funding.

The Las Virgenes Unified School District has traditionally been a source of pride for west San Fernando Valley residents, providing quality public education away from the social ills that plague many schools in the neighboring Los Angeles unified district.

It has even contributed to the local economy.

“We have had a wonderful school district and it has been a great selling point for all the real estate agents and developers in the area. The same house is worth thousands of dollars more if it is in Las Virgenes than if it is in L.A. Unified,” Las Virgenes school board member Barbara Bowman said.

But although it may not have problems with gangs and violence, the district, which serves about 9,650 students from such affluent communities as Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Hidden Hills and Westlake Village, is not immune to the vagaries of state funding.

Because it relies on the state for about 75% of its annual operating budget, Las Virgenes faces a major shortfall in state money for the coming year--a deficit that will require the district to slash teaching positions and academic programs in order to remain solvent.

And district officials will be forced to ask the electorate to approve a parcel tax to help deal with the growing financial crisis.

To that end, the school board has established a parent advisory committee to recommend a specific dollar amount and appropriate duration for the tax. Such taxes are usually instituted for a period of several years and then must come before the voters for renewal.

Officials said the board intends to put the measure--which must be approved by a two-thirds majority of those voting--on the November ballot.

School officials turned to the ballot measure when, after trimming $1.4 million from a $37-million operating budget this year, they found that they must cut an additional $1.3 million to $1.6 million out of next year’s budget, district Supt. Albert Marley said.

Last year’s cuts were made by scaling back maintenance and custodial services and reducing by 38% each school’s discretionary funds, which pay for such basic supplies as pens and pencils as well as such extras as field trips, Marley said.

But this year, with little fat to trim, administrators said the district will have no choice but to lay off some teachers and librarians, to increase the size of already large classes and to eliminate some of the district’s innovative academic programs.

“You get to the point where there is not a lot of fat, where there are not a lot of places left to cut,” Bowman said.

“These are the things that really make the program, that make sure these students are having a fine education.”

Programs in jeopardy include an award-winning introductory science program for fourth- and fifth-graders, a transitional kindergarten-first grade for children who are not ready to proceed to first grade and remedial classes designed to bolster basic academic skills of elementary school students.

The district may also have to cease the high school absence callers program, which Marley said is an effective means of alerting parents that their children are ditching school or are in danger of dropping out.

Librarians’ hours in the high schools may be reduced. The elementary schools may be without any librarian. Eleven teachers may lose their jobs, and six administrators could return to the classroom.

“If we had been sitting here a year ago and you had asked me about teacher layoffs, I would have told you that we would be hiring teachers,” Marley said. “We are a growing district.”

Without cutting at least some of these programs, the district would have to spend all of its cash reserves--about $2 million--and would still be about $628,000 in the red. The cuts will be made at the end of the month after public hearings on the matter, including one tonight at the district offices.

A hearing several weeks ago drew about 50 teachers and parents, who vented frustration at what they perceive as Gov. Pete Wilson’s lack of concern for education.

“The complaints are basically directed at the state. That’s where the anger is,” Bowman said. “It will cost us a lot more in the long run if we cut programs, remedial help and libraries. When you have students that are dropping out of schools, it costs us a lot more to pay for their needs down the road.”

Wilson’s budget calls for the suspension of Proposition 98, a constitutional amendment passed in 1988 that requires 40% of state general tax revenues to go to public schools and community colleges. Wilson proposes giving schools just 37.5% of the general funds as part of a series of cutbacks to help California through its fiscal crisis.

“The tragedy is that we, the citizens of this state, have not been willing to support public schools at the same levels that have been found in other states in the nation,” Marley said.

Marley said that with state funding so unstable, the district has only one recourse to secure adequate funding: a flat parcel tax on district residents. Such a tax, he said, could enable the district to restore in 1992-93 many of the programs that will be suspended in the coming year.

“It can be a real salvation,” said Patricia Vincent, principal of Sumac Elementary School, where many classrooms are already filled to the state limit of 32 students. “It’s too late for this year--some things are definitely going to be suspended. We can live with that for a year, but after a year, those cuts are going to have some real long-lasting effects if we can’t find a way to reinstate those programs.”

According to statistics maintained by School Services of California, a private educational consulting firm, parcel tax elections have been held in about 92 school districts throughout the state since 1984. About 40 of the proposed taxes have been approved by the two-thirds majority necessary for adoption.

But despite an economic downturn, Las Virgenes officials believe that education-minded residents will support the fee.

“All we have to do is make them understand how important it is,” Bowman said. “If the quality of education goes down, the property values go down, so this should have meaning for everyone, whether they have children or not.”