NEWPORT BEACH : School Board Starts Budget-Cutting Talks

Trustees of Newport-Mesa Unified School District this week convened the first in a series of discussions on paring the district’s 1992-93 budget to cover a projected $2.7-million shortfall.

At its meeting Tuesday, the board did not get past the first page of the 175-page budget document, which members intend to review line by line, but some indications emerged about where they could make cuts.

Trustees discussed whether to cut funds they use to attend conferences and receive publications and also brought up the idea of reducing board expenditures by 10% to 25%. However, each board member’s monthly stipend of $400 is expected to remain the same under next year’s budget, for a total of $33,600 annually.

They also considered trimming the district’s athletic budget, increasing the price of school lunches and cutting back on administrative expenses.

“I want to be sure we’re not penny-wise and pound foolish,” said board member Sherry Loofbourrow. She said she was concerned about cutting programs that the district would be unable to reinstate if more funding became available in the future.

Trustees will not make any decisions on the $90-million budget until June. They plan to continue discussing budget cuts at board meetings until then.

Trustee Edward Decker said he was interested in reviewing travel and conference expenses as possible budget items to be trimmed. Member Martha Fluor agreed that money being spent to run the board and administration could probably be saved by consolidating expenditures on memberships, out-of-town meetings and publications.

Trustee Jim de Boom proposed closing high school campuses during lunchtime so students would spend lunch money at school instead of at nearby eateries.

So far, the board has reduced the deficit from $3.6 million to $2.7 million through a combination of cost-cutting measures in recent months. Among the measures were a fee instituted for bus rides to and from school, and cutting the the budget for the school farm at Costa Mesa High School by half.

Also, the district saved a still-undetermined amount of funds because the state-mandated pay raise for teachers was less than the district had budgeted.

Still to come are savings generated by early retirements and the elimination of up to 100 teaching jobs.