SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Schools Dip Into Reserves for Budget

Academic programs will be spared from severe cuts under a $127-million budget for the 1993-94 fiscal year adopted this week by the Capistrano Unified School District Board of Trustees.

To help cover a shortfall of about $4.6 million, the district drew from its $9.1-million reserve fund instead of making cuts in academic programs, as was done in previous years. The district will be left with a reserve of about $4.5 million, about 3% of the total budget.

But the new budget does not restore cuts from previous years, and does not include increases for such things as teacher salaries and instructional supplies, officials said. In the past two years, the district has cut more than $11 million from its budgets.

Under the new budget, the district also eliminated four high school vice principal positions, and cut bus routes for some students. Those affected by the cut in vice principal positions were transferred to positions in new schools or other vacancies in the district.

In addition, the district will leave vacant the associate superintendent position left open by the departure of William D. Eller to become superintendent of the Cypress School District.

“As California’s schools are almost entirely dependent upon the state for funding, the state’s continuing fiscal nightmare meant another year of belt-tightening and cutbacks for local school districts like CUSD,” Supt. James A. Fleming said in a report to the board.

“This budget, while not improving current operations and programs, will at least allow us to maintain fiscal stability while we hope for better times economically for the state and for the status of public education funding in general,” Fleming concluded in the report.