HUNTINGTON BEACH : Ocean View District Has Funds to Spare

While many school districts are slashing spending and drawing on reserves to cope with the statewide budget crunch, the Ocean View School District board has approved a balanced budget for 1991-92 with money to spare.

The $37-million spending plan projects a $315,787 shortfall for the coming school year, but that will be offset by a $464,359 surplus in the current year’s budget, said Jon Spang, the district’s director of fiscal services. The surplus resulted from the district spending less than budgeted, coupled with increased interest income from investments, he said.

Although trustees may continue to revise the budget, the approved spending package is the district’s final 1991-92 budget plan, because Ocean View officials have chosen to follow an accelerated budget schedule. Most other districts follow an alternative schedule, under which a tentative budget is approved in June and a final plan is adopted in September.

Because Ocean View cut $800,000 in spending a year ago, it has minimized the effect of the state education funding crisis that has pinched or crippled many California school districts, Spang said.

Additionally, a 15-year enrollment plunge that had hit Ocean View has reversed itself in the last two years, he said. Officials project the 8,600-student district will grow by about 170 students in 1991-92, thus increasing per-student funding from the state.

Critics warn, however, that the district’s perceived sound fiscal health might be only temporary. The district’s Budget Advisory Committee, composed of parents and district employees, has criticized Ocean View’s practice of selling or leasing closed school sites to pay for ongoing expenses. Gordon Busch, chairman of that committee, said he believes that sale and lease income should be used to add educational programs and enhance existing ones, rather than simply maintain the status quo.

In a recent budget study, the committee advised trustees to restrict programs funded by real estate income.