CALABASAS : District OKs Budget Without Major Cuts

For the first time in five years, the Las Virgenes Unified School District Board of Trustees has approved a budget without major cuts or class size increases.

“Hopefully, we will not have to make additional cuts for the next three years,” said district Assistant Supt. Donald Zimring. “Then, we might be able to add things that were cut back to the budget at a modest rate.”

The $42-million spending plan approved at a regular board meeting Tuesday night also includes the establishment of a fund to bring down the number of students per class at the middle school and high school levels.

So far, only about $12,000 has been raised from corporations, individuals and others. But that could change dramatically, Zimring said, if the state relaxes restrictions on the way school districts transfer funds between spending categories.

Another $40,000 was set aside for increased campus security.

Zimring said the brighter economic picture this year is due, in part, to a windfall in state funding held from 1991. Also, the district’s enrollment was 150 students higher than expected last fall, bringing in more state funds.

The prestigious Las Virgenes district, which serves more than 10,000 students between the city of Los Angeles and the Ventura County line, was forced to raise class size limits at middle and high schools last year from about 36 to about 40 students.