HUNTINGTON BEACH : Schools Cut $451,304 to Head Off Deficit

To help offset a projected $1-million deficit, the trustees of the Huntington Beach City School District on Tuesday slashed more than $450,000 in spending for the coming year.

The approved reductions in the 1991-92 budget plan, totaling $451,304, will not force any layoffs or cutbacks in school programs, district officials said. The spending plan was unanimously approved by the Board of Trustees without opposition.

“I was pleased to see these cuts as far away from personnel and the classroom as possible,” Trustee Gary Nelson said.

The move is an amendment to the district’s tentative budget, which the Board of Trustees approved last month. The board will adopt its final budget in September.

The district is expected to dip into its reserves to cover the rest of the shortfall, but officials said they are hopeful that the amount needed from reserves will be sharply reduced or eliminated by potential income increases this summer.

Depending upon the final budget the state Legislature adopts, the district’s revenue could climb nearly $500,000 from current projections, officials said.

Additionally, Huntington Beach City is among four districts that make up the West Orange County Schools Financing Authority, which will decide next week whether to form a maintenance assessment district to charge property owners for some schools’ costs of operating and maintaining recreational facilities.

The Huntington Beach City School District stands to receive more than $700,000 for those expenses if that proposal is approved, according to a consultant’s report on the plan. Half of that money would have be targeted for capital improvements.

“Still, we currently project to have a half-million-dollar deficit, so I don’t consider that to be a strong position,” said Gary Burgner, deputy superintendent for business services. “It is something we can carry on for one more year, but that’s it.”

Under the package of cuts the board unanimously approved Tuesday, the district will postpone buying new library books for a year, reduce planned capital spending by half, use fewer supplies and cancel some scheduled training programs for district employees, among other cuts.

The district will save more than $40,000 by trimming instructional supplies by 10% and cutting half of its planned budget for new instructional equipment. Trustees said they are confident that those cuts will not affect the quality of learning for students.

The reductions will not eliminate any jobs, but the district will not be filling two vacant positions, including a $70,000-a-year administrative job and a part-time library clerk.

In addition, some former district teachers who have retired early will be tapped as substitute teachers beginning this fall. Ex-teachers may enhance their retirement benefits while augmenting their income by working at various jobs for the district. In the past, those former teachers have typically worked at office jobs, helped develop educational programs and assisted with student testing projects but rarely have served as substitute teachers, officials said.

Other cuts include $150,000 in maintenance spending and reduced budgets for testing programs, which officials said would bring those assessment spending projections in line with their actual costs.

District administrators drafted the list of cuts from trustees’ recommendations on a collection of reductions originally proposed by a committee of parents, teachers and other district employees.