Educators Wary Despite Progress of Bills to Guarantee Funding : Budgets: The Prop. 98 measures face opposition in the Assembly. Districts still plan $20 million in cuts.

Ventura County educators, though pleased about the state Senate’s approval of two bills that would guarantee full funding to public schools, said Monday that it’s too early to be completely optimistic.

The Senate unanimously passed the two bills Sunday to uphold Proposition 98, which guarantees state money to public schools. However, the bills still face opposition in the Assembly.

And officials in the county’s 20 school districts were still planning to make cuts totaling more than $20 million to balance their 1991-92 budgets. In some districts the cuts include layoffs.

“Each day things change,” said Ken Prosser, director of school business and advisory services for the Ventura County superintendent of schools office. “Who knows? It’s all tentative until we see a signature on the page by the governor.”

Prosser cited events last year, when both houses of the Legislature approved a school funding package that was later cut by then-Gov. George Deukmejian.

After months of dire budget projections, however, some administrators said the Senate passage of the bills shows progress.

In January, Gov. Pete Wilson proposed cuts of $2 billion to schools statewide in his preliminary budget. But Wilson’s compromise proposal, which the Senate passed Sunday, would maintain Proposition 98 and give schools $800 million more than he proposed in January.

And one of the bills would suspend a new state law requiring schools to pay counties for collecting property tax fees. Those fees total about $3 million this school year in Ventura County.

Many of the county’s districts are adopting tentative budgets, and administrators said that will continue.

“It’s a good example of the problems school districts have planning for the budget year,” said Joseph Richards of the Ventura Unified School District. “We don’t know how much money we are going to get, and sometimes they take money away during the year.”

The Ventura school board, which has proposed cuts of $3.2 million from its $57-million budget, will review its proposed final budget tonight.

The Senate approval “is the first good news we’ve had in months,” said Assistant Supt. Leo Molitor of the Ojai Unified School District, which must cut about $800,000 to balance its $13.8-million budget. “I’m pleased that the governor has backed off of his intent that the Legislature stop Proposition 98.”

While Proposition 98 won’t mean more money, it will keep districts from losing financial ground, Molitor and administrators in other districts said.

“It will put us in better shape for 1992-93,” Molitor said. “If it had been suspended, it would have been hard to get back.”

To keep from making some of the cuts that most of the county’s school systems are considering, districts will need a cost-of-living increase to keep up with inflation.

“It’s a glimmer of hope,” said Assistant Supt. Sarah Hart of the Conejo Valley Unified School District. Hart said a proposed 1% to 1.5% cost-of-living increase to schools also being discussed in the Legislature could mean $500,000 to $750,000 to the Conejo Valley district.

The Conejo Valley board will vote Thursday on its tentative $70.7-million budget, which includes $3.9 million in cuts.

Despite the hurdles the bills still face, several school officials used the words “cautious optimism” to describe their outlook.

“We’re waiting to see how it comes out,” said Richards of Ventura.