HUNTINGTON BEACH : School District to Air Budget-Cut Plan
The superintendent of the Huntington Beach Union High School District will unveil his recommended spending cuts tonight as trustees attempt to gouge $3.1 million from the budget.
The Board of Trustees is scheduled to hold a public hearing Feb. 25 on Supt. David Hagen’s recommendations. It will adopt a final list of cuts from an $80-million budget on March 10.
Having slashed $14.5 million in the past five years, trustees have acknowledged that they may not be able to avoid laying off employees and eliminating a host of key educational programs this year. A year ago, when the board made $2.5 million in cuts, it narrowly averted a recommendation to lay off half the district’s school nurses and psychologists, among others.
The district’s financial problems have been caused by the statewide educational funding crisis along with the district’s plunging enrollment since its peak in 1978. The district has cut $29 million from its budget since then.
In past years, the board has minimized layoffs by eliminating vacant positions, cutting back on supplies, reducing administrative costs, consolidating some school programs and dipping into budget reserves.
Those options now have been all but exhausted, Hagen told trustees last month.
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