State May Give District $800,000 Windfall

Glendale school officials are anticipating that the California budget approved early Wednesday may give the district up to $800,000 more than the district budgeted, but they say there are no plans to reinstate any educational programs.

The district staff will analyze the Sacramento budget in coming weeks with help from private and county school finance consultants. It plans to present a revised budget to the Glendale Unified School District board within a month.

District spokesman Vic Pallos said that if an assessment concludes that the Glendale district is indeed almost $1 million richer than it thought, the board might place the money in a contingency fund for a future budget crunch.

Officials believe that new revenue cuts are imminent because of a provision in the state budget that limits Proposition 98, the voter approved initiative guaranteeing a minimum of state spending for schools.

“I’m not sure any funds will be reallocated this year,” Supt. Robert Sanchis said. “I wouldn’t make any assumptions.”

The drawn out battles in Sacramento have frustrated local school boards, which have been forced to carry on business as usual without knowing how much money they can expect to receive from the state.

“It’s a guessing game; our fiscal year started July 1, and we’re already in our second month,” Glendale board member June Sweetnam said. “Not only is it confusing, but the state budget process is impossible to work with.”

Glendale officials said the unexpected funds might come about because the state has increased General Fund appropriations by 2% for local school districts. But Glendale school officials say that the state has also cut funding for special programs, such as for gifted children, and that it will take weeks for them to analyze the net effect of the new Sacramento budget.

Meanwhile, they have taken a cautious attitude. At a special meeting Tuesday night, several board members said that although they do not anticipate further cuts, they are also not ready to restore any of the nearly 100 school district personnel positions or student programs that were cut across the board.

“At this point, it would be academic to anticipate what will happen,” board member Charles Whitesell said.