IRVINE : School District Puts Freeze on Spending

The Irvine Unified School District has frozen expenditures to help close a projected $1.9-million shortfall in its budget for the 1994-95 fiscal year.

The move, which is expected to save about $500,000, will restrict school officials from making the planned purchases of such items as computers, audiovisual equipment and classroom supplies.

The freeze was discussed by the school board last week and is now in effect. Supt. David E. Brown said the freeze and other measures are necessary to offset the expected budget gap without laying off teachers.

School board members will decide how to balance the budget in June or July when district officials present them with a final plan. For now, the board has decided not to lay off teachers, a move that would have required the notification of targeted instructors over the next few weeks.

Steve Garretson, president of the Irvine Teachers Assn., said the freeze could prevent some teachers from receiving big-ticket items for their classrooms such as televisions, computers, projectors and science equipment.

Garretson said he expects the district will still be able to provide basic classroom supplies such as paper, pencils and chalk.

“Unfortunately, it looks like some of the larger purchases are going to be put off,” he said. “We are just hoping that the financial picture clears up soon.”

Brown said the spending restrictions might be lifted in certain cases. “We are not going to ignore things that are absolutely essential,” he said.

In addition to the freeze, district officials plan to ease the expected shortfall by placing available district funds in high-yielding investments and delaying the repayment of a loan the district made to itself. Both ideas must still be approved by the school board.

The 1994-95 fiscal-year budget is expected to be about $97 million. Funding from the state should to be the same as last year. The shortfall is likely to come from increases in employees’ salaries and benefits as well as needed infrastructure improvements.