$133-Million Budget Adds New Teachers

Expecting a student enrollment boom this fall, Saddleback Valley Unified School District trustees have approved a $133-million budget that includes money to hire three dozen more teachers.

The balanced annual budget for the 1996-97 school year also includes a 5% increase in overall spending and a 3% bigger reserve fund for contingencies.

The spending plan is “a lot more optimistic than we’ve had in many years,” Supt. Peter A. Hartman said.

District officials said they expect 900 additional students this fall, putting total enrollment at more than 31,000.

Depending on how much money the district receives from the state, which has yet to approve a budget for the new fiscal year, even more teachers might be hired, officials said.

Gov. Pete Wilson has proposed allocating an extra $500 per student to schools that reduce first- and second-grade class size to 20 pupils. That could total $1.3 million for the Saddleback Valley district, officials said.

No further spending commitments will be made until the state budget is approved, Hartman said. He pointed out that in Wilson’s proposal “there was no money for classrooms. . . . We’d like to see it properly funded.”

The school district’s budget will be revised, he said, when officials know exactly how much money to expect from the state.