GLENDALE : Glendale’s Schools Face Budget Deficit

To maintain its current level of spending in a proposed $115-million 1994-95 fiscal year budget, the Glendale Unified School District will have to dip into its savings.

For the third consecutive year, the state does not plan to increase the amount of funding it gives the district per student. The absence of the cost-of-living adjustment in state funds has left the district with a projected 11% deficit in the amount it has available for each student.

The district currently receives about $3,100 from the state for each of the district’s 28,750 students. The district expects an enrollment growth of about 395 new students in the 1994-95 school year. The district also will not receive additional funds for the new enrollees, forcing officials to spend district savings.

The district receives about 90% of its funding from various state sources. It spends a majority of this money on employee salaries and benefits.

Administrators are concerned that drawing down the district’s $8-million savings account to pay for new students will eat up reserves set aside for the 1995-96 and 1996-97 school years--leaving the district strapped for cash.

The district’s reserve fund peaked at $10 million in the 1993-94 budget year after Board of Education members cut $6 million from the 1992-93 budget in preparation for the state’s freeze on cost-of-living increases.

If the state does not increase the amount of money it gives to the district to support each student, officials may be forced to cut programs next year and in the 1996-97 school year, said district spokesman Vic Pallos.

“We will be able to maintain our current level of spending per student in the 1994-95 school year, but if we don’t get a cost-of-living adjustment from the state there will be program cuts next year,” Pallos said.

The district has not cut any programs from the 1994-95 budget proposal but is unable to add any either. The proposal includes a 2% wage increase for teachers and other district employees over a two-year period.

The Board of Education reviewed the 1994-95 budget proposal Tuesday. The general fund portion of the proposed budget--about $89 million--has increased slightly over last year’s general fund to pay for new classroom materials.

Board members are scheduled to give a final vote on the budget June 21.