Buena Park : School Budget Plan Could Mean Layoffs

A proposed $17.9-million budget for fiscal 1992 in the Buena Park School District includes a large reduction in expenses that could force the district to lay off some workers as well as cut back on textbooks and maintenance.

The budget presented to district trustees Monday night projects cuts of $830,000 to $850,000 in staff, textbooks, contracts, paint, fuel and conference fees. The cuts also include a $50,000 to $60,000 reduction in teacher pay for after-school and summer school programs and teacher conferences.

“This is really a scary time,” board President Barbara Fagins said.

A number of factors could make the coming year “the most difficult financial year education has experienced in recent memory,” Assistant Supt. Gary Cardinale said. Those factors include the continuing decline in sales tax and lottery revenue, a state education budget that for the third successive year provides no cost-of-living increases, and a pending court case that could determine whether school districts must resume payments to the state employees’ retirement fund.

“We will be educating 450 more (students) than we had in 1990-91 with the same number of dollars,” Cardinale told the board. “The word crisis may not be accurate to describe this situation.”

Currently, the district serves 4,616 students, some of whom are enrolled in special education programs or English-as-a-second-language classes or qualify for free meals because of low family income. Cardinale noted that the school district’s costs are further burdened by a requirement that the district continue state-mandated programs, such as an AIDS course that will be put in place this year, despite funding reductions from the state.

“If we are going to be required to give kids services that they’re not going to get elsewhere, we have to have the funding sources,” he said. “It’s not fair or right that programs for these little people should be cut back when they have all these needs.”

The budget, scheduled for final approval June 22, shows revenues of $17.5 million. The $460,000 difference between revenues and expenses will be funded by the district’s reserve account.

Salaries for the district’s 189 teachers account for $8.2 million. Supt. Jack Townsend told board members that he expects seven teacher positions to become vacant in September because of retirements and resignations.

The projected student enrollment in the fall would require those positions to be filled, but the school district will delay filling those positions until the actual student count is finished later in the fall, he said. The district currently has an average classroom student-teacher ratio of 30 to 1.

Growth in the student body may be the one bright spot in the budget projections, Cardinale said. Because the state has not predicted a growth in overall student enrollment, districts such as Buena Park that do have an increase could receive more money from the state.