COSTA MESA / NEWPORT BEACH : District to Explore Range of Budget Cuts

Planning for a worst-case financial scenario, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District has voted to beef up its budget committee and get a range of cost-cutting recommendations at its Feb. 21 meeting.

District officials have estimated the district might receive only 80% of the $80 million it placed in Orange County’s greatly devalued bond pool.

The board in December authorized a list of temporary suspensions of “nonessential” expenses, but officials have stressed that those items would be restored when the county bankruptcy is settled.

Parents and others attending a study session Monday urged officials to make sensible financial projections.

“At what point in time do we start having a sense of reality of having to make cuts . . . when we know that we do have to make cuts?” asked Bill Stampley, who has children in private schools who had hoped to enter the Newport-Mesa system next year.

“It’s Pollyannaish for us to sit here and believe . . . that we’re going to get 100% of our money back,” said Alan Troop, who has two children in Anderson Elementary.

Troop was also upset that the board added a staff advisory panel--with representatives from each of its employee groups--to the budget committee, rather than bringing in volunteer financial experts from the community.

Despite protests from board members, notably veteran Judy Franco, that the district would not be treated differently from other bankruptcy creditors because it borrowed $47 million to invest in the pool, an invited guest had a different opinion.

Stan Oswalt, a former school district superintendent who has acted as a state Department of Education receiver for insolvent school districts, said the district might get all of its own $53 million back, but was not as optimistic about the borrowed money.