School District Rebounds From Crisis With Budget Surplus

The Montebello Unified School District isn’t only recovering from a nearly fatal fiscal crisis, it is experiencing what officials say can only be called a miracle.

The 32,000-student district had been forced to slash $45 million from its $150-million budget, a cut so wide and deep that the entire school system teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, said Supt. Norman Kirschenbaum.

But now, after two years of rebuilding, he reports that the district has a budget of $156.5 million, including a surplus of $6.5 million--and is planning for better times to come.

“We’re going to be the Nordstrom of education; not the 7-Eleven,” Kirschenbaum said.

Montebello Unified isn’t the only district forced to eliminate jobs and programs in recent years. And, like other troubled districts in California, including neighboring Compton, Montebello was hard hit by rising costs, shrinking state funds and a decline in enrollment.

In response, Kirschenbaum said, the salaries of teachers, staff members and administrators were cut. All of the district’s librarians and most of its nurses were fired. Consultant positions in language arts, music, art and social science were eliminated. Only one plumber remained to service 29 schools.

“We were down to the very, very, very bare essentials,” Kirschenbaum says. “The state told us in 1994-95, ‘You’re not going to make it.’ It was the worst of times.”

In the eleventh hour, teachers agreed to pay cuts for three years, beginning last year. Thanks to an economic turnaround, however, they will instead receive a modest 5.1% raise this year, Kirschenbaum says.

He attributes the district’s recovery to a series of events, including the development of relationships with federal and state officials to obtain new program funds and grants, and the dedication of the five-member school board.

He does not minimize a fortuitous improvement in the general economy, but is still willing to brag about the district’s achievement. “Our success is quite a coup,” says Kirschenbaum, who was promoted to the top school job in 1995.

“When we became perilously close to closing, the board said, ‘We’re not going to let the state take us over. We want control of our schools and we will take the responsibility for the budget.’

“Montebello will be a footnote in the history of school districts that have come back from the brink of disaster. The school board deserves a lot of credit.”