BREA : School District OKs Reduced Budget

The Brea-Olinda Unified School District Board of Trustees unanimously passed a $21.3-million budget for the 1992-93 academic year Monday night.

The new budget, which is about $300,000 less than last year’s, includes several cuts. Among the cost-cutting measures are an increase in average class size districtwide, which will save about $350,000, said district Supt. Edgar Z. Seal.

When classes start in the fall, average class size at the elementary level will increase from 30.5 to 32 students. At the junior high and high school levels, class size will increase from an average of 34 students per class to 36.

Also included in the new budget were fee increases for use of district day-care facilities, $85,000 in administrative cuts, and reductions in the district’s maintenance budget.

The board also decided to close the Brea-Olinda High School campus at lunch in hopes of increasing revenues from the student cafeteria. Students had bitterly protested the move, which will end the longstanding practice of allowing juniors and seniors to eat lunch off campus.

The board postponed a final vote on a controversial plan to charge students for school busing, deciding to wait and see how severe a hit the district will take if the state government cuts funding for public education.

The transportation plan had run into strong opposition from parents, particularly those whose children lived within walking distance of one school but were bused to another because of problems with overcrowding.