‘96-97 Budget Retains Most School Programs

Trustees of the county’s largest school district approved an annual spending plan this week that is smaller than the current budget but continues funding for most programs.

Santa Ana Unified’s $239-million budget for the 1996-97 school year retains spending for special education and a regional occupational program, but designates no additional funds to accommodate a growing student population.

“The positive aspect is that the district has funding available to do some good stuff for kids,” said Bill Shanahan, executive director of the Santa Ana Educators’ Assn. “But we believe that there still are a lot of unknown factors.”

Among those unknowns is exactly how much money the district will receive from the state. Gov. Pete Wilson has proposed giving schools an extra $500 per student to help reduce class sizes in the first and second grades, but that plan is on hold until the state budget is adopted.

The state now provides school districts annually with about $3,000 per student.

Santa Ana Unified is projecting an enrollment increase of 896 students this fall to a total of 50,505 students. The budget, however, will be about $6 million less than the current year’s because of grants that have not been renewed.