COSTA MESA / NEWPORT BEACH : $87-Million School Budget Gets Hearing

The Newport-Mesa school board will conduct a public hearing tonight on its $86.8-million budget for the 1994-95 fiscal year.

This year’s budget is the first to be drafted under a prohibition on deficit spending imposed after the district’s former chief financial officer, Stephen A. Wagner, was convicted of embezzling $3.7 million in district funds, said Michael Fine, director of fiscal services.

The budget reflects new employee contract agreements approved since June and a slim increase--less than 1%--in projected property tax revenues on which the district depends for funding, he said.

In past years, the county has provided school districts with revenue projections in August, then revised them in November. Not so this year, Fine said.

“Historically, the corrections have been big. What that does is force us to make the projections here,” Fine said. “I can be 99% right, and still miss it by $600,000. That causes a lot of gray hair and a lack of sleep at night.”

The budget includes restoring an elementary school physical education program cut in tight financial times four years ago and adding 16 teachers to keep average class sizes down to 29 students per teacher. The district expects a 198-student increase in enrollment this year, Fine added.

The district saved $250,000 in teacher salaries this year when 18 retiring teachers were replaced with new employees and it saved another $100,000 by closing the agriculture-farm program at Costa Mesa High School, Fine said.