Spending Plan Sounds Flat to Band Boosters

There’s $318,000 for new computers, $75,000 for elementary school supplies and enough for 2% across-the-board raises for teachers.

But band supporters from Simi Valley and Royal high schools say they have been overlooked in the 1996-97 school district budget, which contains only $6,000 per school for new uniforms and $1,500 each for new instruments.

“Unless we switch to kazoos, we can’t get by with $1,500,” Barry Watters, a member of the Simi Valley Music Boosters, complained to Simi Valley Unified School District trustees.

Thanks to an improving state economy, trustees Tuesday adopted an $80.8-million spending plan--the healthiest budget of this decade and one that allows the district to continue to avoid deficit spending.

“This is the first good budget the district has had since 1990,” said David Kanthak, assistant superintendent for business services. “It appears that the state has made a turn for the better.”

Under the budget, which won’t be finalized for several months, each high school will receive $7,500 for band uniforms and new instruments. But with hundreds of new students scheduled to join both schools as part of a restructuring program that will add ninth-graders to the city’s three-year high schools, the bands’ ranks are expected to swell.

For example, the Simi Valley High School Marching Pioneers are expected to grow by more than 50 students next year. To properly attire them, the school needs about 20 more band uniforms and 50 hats, as well as 20 costumes for the flag and baton twirlers. The total cost: about $10,000.

But it’s the instruments that school officials are really worried about.

Some students bring their own flutes and trumpets, but the school must provide the larger or more expensive instruments, such as sousaphones, saxophones, marimbas and piccolos. About $15,000 worth of Simi Valley High’s inventory was damaged or stolen during the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Watters said.

The school asked for $25,000 to replace the lost instruments and accommodate the new students. “We can get by with the uniforms,” he said. “But $1,500 is a down payment” on a sousaphone.

The situation at Royal High School is similar, said Robert Aguilar, band director.

“With the new influx, we are in very big trouble,” he said. “I am putting out an all-points bulletin for anyone in the business community or people with instruments up in their attics gathering dust. Help us; we’ll put your instruments to good use.”

Band officials told trustees that to enter regional band competitions in the fall, they had to place orders for the new instruments and uniforms as soon as possible.

With an additional $1.2 million left to spend on new programs and more state money on the way, trustees said they would take a second look at the band allocations.

But they will not revise the figures until after the state budget is adopted, which usually happens in August. The district’s budget--a 3.14% increase over last year--includes $1.89 million in additional state funds.

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At least an additional $2 million in state money is expected when Gov. Pete Wilson approves a final state budget.

And the district’s budget does not include hundreds of thousands more that may come from recent initiatives by Wilson to help reduce class size and give cash grants to schools.

The windfall--only the second substantial influx of state money in five years--has helped the district stay out of the red, marking the third year in which the schools are not expected to overspend, Kanthak said.

Supt. Mary Beth Wolford said she was happy that the 18,700-student district has been able to break a pattern of deficit spending.

But she was a bit more reserved about the district’s outlook for the 1996-97 fiscal year, which starts July 1.

“We don’t have gobs and gobs of money,” she said, “but we are prudently in good shape.”

The new money will be used to give teachers a 2% raise guaranteed by a union contract accepted last year after months of bitter negotiations.

The district will also spend $75,000 on teaching supplies for kindergarten through sixth grade.

The 25% increase over last year’s spending in instructional supplies is the first raise the district has seen in at least 10 years, said Susan Parks, deputy superintendent of educational services. “Any increase feels real good,” she said, “especially after 10 years.”

The money may be used by the schools to purchase anything from art supplies to new computer equipment.

In addition, the new budget includes $318,000 for computers, hardware and software. Most of the money, Parks said, will be used to help wire the schools so they can access each other’s libraries and other electronic resources.

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Money was also allotted for two new programs.

About $60,000 will go toward implementing a pilot program to help students make the transition from elementary to junior high school. The hope is to lower the dropout rate, Parks said.

Another $80,000 will be used to hire two roving teachers who will work in classrooms with elementary teachers to help them improve their methods of teaching math. They will also act as curriculum consultants to the district’s reading and writing programs.

Trustees said they were pleased with the new spending plan.

Said trustee Norman Walker: “Whenever the financial picture improves, you feel better about what you are doing.”