SANTA CLARITA / ANTELOPE VALLEY : District Considers Campus Cutbacks, Layoffs : Education: Officials, expecting a deficit, look for ways to slash budget as costs of two new schools strain finances.

The cost of maintaining two new schools in the Santa Clarita Valley’s lone high school district will cause the district’s budget to drop from a $5-million surplus this year to a $2.3-million debt by 1997, prompting authorities to discuss large-scale layoffs and possibly closing a school.

The William S. Hart Union High School District has enough money to operate only through the 1995-96 school year--and those figures are conservative, said William Maddigan, director of fiscal services, at the district’s board of trustees meeting Wednesday night.

The board will need to make significant budget cuts by July to avoid disaster the following year, he said.

“We could shut off all of our utilities and not buy any paper or supplies for the whole year and it still wouldn’t overcome the shortfall we have here,” he said.

Maddigan said the only viable solution is layoffs, since personnel costs account for 85% of the annual $50-million general fund budget. However, some board members went a step further, saying that closing a school or facilities at several schools should also be considered.

“We may be faced with that kind of alternative,” said board President John Hassel. “I don’t know of any clearer alternative right now.”

The shortfall resulted because the district expanded from six traditional schools to eight this year, opening Valencia High School and La Mesa Junior High. The new schools increased the district’s operating costs by one-third without any increase in revenue, Maddigan said.

In addition, the state’s massive budget shortfalls of recent years were not foreseen when Hart officials began planning the new schools 10 years ago to accommodate growing enrollments, Maddigan said.

Ironically, the district’s surplus had actually grown in recent years. The surplus was $3.7 million in 1992-93 and grew to $5 million for the 1993-94 school year. For 1994-95, however, the surplus is beginning to drop, and the district expects to lose more than $2 million a year over the next three years.

*

Board members said they will discuss financial goals in February and March, and probably will begin proposing cuts in April.

“I know that a couple of years ago any fat that was there was gone,” said board member Patricia Hanrion. “We’re down to the bone.”

The district’s ratio of employees to students is already among the worst in the state, said Assistant Supt. Michael von Buelow. A program to bring more computers and other high-tech equipment to district schools is also in jeopardy.

And the district finds itself in a Catch-22: a significant increase this year in on-campus burglaries and vandalism. Maddigan said the break-ins are costing the district tens of thousands of dollars, but money isn’t available to fund extensive security measures.

“The vandalism probably wouldn’t take place if we had someone on campus 24 hours a day,” he said.

High schools have an all-night janitor on weeknights and the district spends $35,000 a year for guards to patrol campuses during holidays, Maddigan said. The board agreed to let Maddigan explore the possibility of alarms around school perimeters, although he said such a system would cost at least $500,000.

“We think it might be a good idea to spend wisely now on what would be a preventative measure,” said Supt. Daniel Hanigan.

The only good financial news at the meeting was that the district recently won a $1,000 grant from the California School Boards Assn.

“Do we put this into lottery tickets?” Hassel quipped.