District Budget Goes From Red to Black

Trustees of the Capistrano Unified School District approved a revised $165-million budget this week for the 1996-97 school year that is $7 million more than the tentative budget previously approved in June.

The new spending plan is bigger because the state budget Gov. Pete Wilson signed on July 15 allocates more state funds for education. The tentative budget had shown a $3.6-million deficit, but with the additional money, that shortfall was erased.

“This district is fiscally in a very sound position,” Supt. James A. Fleming said.

The main focus of the budget is class size reduction. The state, beginning this year, will pay $650 per student to schools that reduce class size to 20 students in first and second grades.

With all of the district’s 27 elementary schools starting the school year with reduced class sizes in first and second grades, that amounts to more than $4 million for Capistrano Unified.

The district also expects to receive $2 million more when class size reductions in third grade are implemented in the fall and winter, said Carleen Chandler, associate superintendent.

“I’m very pleased that the district has accepted the challenge to reduce class size in first and second,” Trustee Marlene Draper said. “I think we all need to push the state to continue funding because it’s so critical.”

In the revised budget, each school also will receive a minimum of $25,000, or roughly $66 per student, whichever amount is greater, in grants. This money is targeted for items that each school’s site council, a group of parents, teachers and the principal, designates as priority expenditures.

In addition, the district will pocket about $1 million in one-time state funding for reading materials at the primary-grade level. More than $1 million more in state one-time funds also will be given to the district for deferred maintenance, educational technology, library resources and instructional materials.