MOORPARK : Schools to Vote on Budget, Jobs Freeze

The Moorpark Unified School District is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a proposed 1992-93 budget that would add six new teaching positions but continue the hiring freeze on clerical and maintenance workers.

The proposed budget assumes that the Legislature will reduce schools’ funding from $3,364 to $2,910 per student, said Carmela Vignocchi, assistant superintendent of business services.

The budget is conservative because it’s “almost at the worst-case scenario” of what schools expect from the state this year, she said.

The Moorpark district’s proposed budget does not anticipate the need to eliminate educational programs or lay off any employees.

Although the budget proposal calls for continuing a hiring freeze on non-teaching employees, such as clerical and maintenance workers, it would add six new teaching positions to keep up with a projected 4% increase in enrollment.

Because the number of Moorpark students grows every year, the amount of money that the schools get from the state has also continued to increase, making the Moorpark district luckier than districts that are not growing, Vignocchi said.

Still, the district’s budget review committee has recommended that the school board brace for further state cutbacks in future years.

The committee has suggested that the board consider charging students for bus transportation from home to school beginning in the 1993-94 school year.