OXNARD : Schools Adopt New $54.2-Million Budget

Trustees of the Oxnard Elementary School District have adopted a $54.2-million budget, but the district’s superintendent warned that the spending plan could fall victim to the state’s fiscal crisis.

Adopted without changes at the board’s meeting this week, the spending plan was balanced with the aid of $1.7 million from the district’s reserve fund. The budget eliminates five clerical positions in the 12,100-student district, but does not call for any reduction in teaching staff.

While the board approved the budget before the mandatory July 1 deadline, Supt. Norman R. Brekke said the plan may change substantially once state legislators approve the state budget.

On Thursday, district administrators listened to a four-hour video briefing by education consultants from Sacramento, who described various scenarios by which state legislators are expected to erase an $11-billion deficit.

“They painted a dismal picture,” Brekke said, adding that he is most concerned with a possible transfer of $2.2 billion in school dollars to the state’s general fund. “If public education in California faces a $2.2-billion shortfall in revenues, it would set education in our state back a full decade,” Brekke said.