State Budget Brings a Minor Windfall to Schools : Education: District officials had braced for the worse by cutting programs, teachers and student services. Some will be reinstated.

With the passage of the state budget last month, Westside school districts can finally put in place the biggest piece of their spending puzzles.

The single largest source of income for the three Westside school districts--Santa Monica-Malibu, Beverly Hills and Culver City--is the state, whose own budget crisis had threatened the amount of allocations for education.

“All of us were prepared for the very, very worst,” said Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Supt. Eugene Tucker. “And there was a wide range of possible outcomes. None of us experienced anything terrific, but the worst case scenarios for the most part did not take place.”

The school districts had prepared for the worst by cutting back millions of dollars in educational programs, teachers and student services.

Now financial advisers for the school districts are projecting a minor windfall for conservative planners.

In Santa Monica, the bonus money will come from a higher than expected cost-of-living increase, money based on enrollment, and a better-than-expected share of state lottery revenues.

Santa Monica-Malibu school officials expect to get $544,000 more than they budgeted in their spending plan adopted in June. The plan included about $500,000 in cuts, largely met by the elimination of about 13 jobs, said school board member Michael Hill.

Positions for a language lab technician at the high school and a clerk in the accounting department will be reinstated with about $61,000 of the bonus money. The rest of the eliminated positions, including secretaries, custodians and maintenance workers, had been vacant when they were cut out of the budget and will not be reinstated.

About $60,000 will go toward a program to promote cultural awareness, $45,000 will go toward hiring the equivalent of 2.6 full-time science teachers at the high school, $49,000 will be paid out to teaching assistants at two elementary schools and $15,000 will go toward clerical help.

The balance will go into the district’s emergency reserve fund, bringing it up to $1.233 million, or about 96% of the amount required by state law. The state requires districts to set aside 3% of the total general fund for unforeseen expenses.

“We’re in much better shape than we’ve been in for the last three years,” Hill said. “Mainly because we’ve been living within our means.”

Beverly Hills Unified School District, which receives a major portion of its income from property taxes and the city, was not as lucky as Santa Monica. It will receive less money per student than last year. But it too will get a small windfall from a state reimbursement of a $250,000 fee the district pays the county to collect property taxes, said district Business Manager Don Fox.

In addition, the state has repealed the fee, effective next January. The district set aside $250,000 in case it is charged in the interim. But a bill on Gov. Pete Wilson’s desk could make the repeal effective immediately, Fox said, freeing up a total of $500,000 if the bill is signed.

Santa Monica and Culver City have already allocated the state reimbursement to balance last year’s budgets. Santa Monica will pay the possible interim charge out of its emergency reserve fund, and Culver City will use money it has set aside. If the waiver becomes effective immediately, Culver City will be able to use that money, $87,000, elsewhere in its budget.

Beverly Hills and Culver City will not adopt their budgets until September, so decisions on what to do with any extra monies are not as clear-cut as in Santa Monica.

“Day by day we learn new things,” said Peggy Goldwyn, Beverly Hills school board president. “Everything has a big question mark on it until we get the funds. . . . Let’s just say it is a less bleak picture” than was expected.

But Beverly Hills school board members gave their superintendent the go-ahead last week to begin planning what to do with the $250,000 state reimbursement.

The district’s preliminary budget cut about 11 full-time teaching positions to close a projected $1.3-million deficit.

The district’s highest priority is restoring a seventh period for sixth-graders that was cut last year, said Carol Katzman, assistant superintendent. This will be done by hiring consultants to enhance existing programs, such as art and math, thereby freeing teachers to offer other courses, she said. The next priority is to bring back physical education teachers for high school seniors so their sixth period, also cut last year, can be reinstated.

Culver City Unified School District, which relies on the state for about 85% of it’s revenue, was disappointed by the budget fallout. Culver City did get a cost-of-living adjustment that was $113,000 more than expected, but lottery revenues were lower than predicted and cuts were made in funding for special education, bringing its net gain to $80,000.

The district was able to reinstate two elementary school reading specialists cut in the preliminary budget. But other cuts, which included about 48 full-time positions, 20 of which were teachers, counselors, assistant principals and other certificated personnel, will remain in effect. Many of the positions are vacant.

Other cuts made in the preliminary budget, such as the music program at the elementary schools and closing the district pool will remain in effect.

Culver City made the cuts to close the gap on a projected $2-million deficit. The district’s reserves are at $300,000, or half of the 3% required by state law, said the district’s business manager, Jim Crawford.

“We were hoping for more money,” Crawford said, “but it just didn’t materialize. It sort of just put us exactly where we were when we approved the tentative budget last June.”