NEWPORT BEACH : Trustees OK Cuts to Balance the Budget

Trustees of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District this week gave initial approval to trimming personnel and several programs to cover a projected $2.6-million shortfall in the fiscal 1992 budget.

At a meeting Tuesday, trustees tentatively agreed to a number of cuts in after-school activities, bus rides and administrative costs. Those proposed cuts will be reviewed again before the final budget is passed in late June.

The biggest cut given preliminary approval this week was in the joint budget for athletics and extracurricular activities, which would suffer a $175,000 decrease from a total allocation of just over $2 million.

Trustees remained at odds, however, about how those funds should be cut, with some members concerned that schools would sacrifice smaller after-school programs, such as the Academic Decathlon or music groups, to spare activities such as the football program and other sports.

“I’m just concerned that some of these programs do not have the booster clubs . . . behind them to do the fighting,” Trustee Martha Fluor said.

Others board members, however, countered that individual principals best know which programs could stand trims and which would be hit hard by even small cuts.

The board also tentatively agreed to lop $75,000 from the athletic transportation budget, which provides funds for sports teams’ rides to other schools. If approved, the teams will have to raise money independently to pay for those trips.

Further, they approved cutting about $9,000 for substitute teachers specifically hired to replace teachers who attend conferences and meetings and about $14,000 from the board members’ own $140,000 budget, which pays their stipends and other expenses.

Also, the trustees approved across-the-board cuts at each school in funds that pay for conferences and consultants and also money that goes for new equipment, which typically pays for new computers and software at the schools.

Tuesday’s planned cuts come as the district attempts to balance a $2.6-million shortfall in its estimated $86-million budget.

Earlier, that shortage was put at about $3.6 million, but the district has covered some of the deficit through smaller pay raises, planned teacher layoffs, cuts in the Costa Mesa High School farm program and new fees that will be charged for busing children to and from school.