School Board Approves $51-Million Cut

The Los Angeles school board voted Tuesday to cut its spending for this fiscal year by $51 million, mostly by trimming back on school supplies and taking money from accounts earmarked for low-income schools.

Tuesday’s cuts are the second wave of reductions that the massive Los Angeles Unified School District has made this year in response to a midyear budget crisis. In January, the board voted to cut $56 million, mostly from maintenance and administration funds.

“We went to schools and their [local] superintendents and said, ‘Give us the kind of cuts [that will cause] the least harm,’” Supt. Roy Romer said.

However, Romer added that this year’s reductions are not as painful as what the district will face next year. “I look at this in light of a $400-million shortfall next year,” he said. The district’s total annual budget is about $9 billion.

Board President Caprice Young agreed. “These are the toughest cuts for this fiscal year because we were running down to the bare bone,” she said. “These cuts today are not affecting people. But next year you’re looking at increasing class size and laying off staff.”

Among Tuesday’s cuts, $2.2 million came from funds for supplies and equipment for local and central district offices. An additional $14 million came from school accounts, which would have been used for supplies, and $4.9 million came from an unspent reserve that schools could have used at their discretions.

The board also voted to take $29.9 million in federal and state reserve funds that could have been used for supplies, programs and classroom aides at low-income schools, and apply it toward other programs for low-income students. Of that, about $7 million will go to the district’s secondary math and literacy programs, while about $19 million will go toward intensive academic support programs.

Tuesday’s cuts came in four board votes, two of which were unanimously approved. Board member David Tokofsky voted no on two measures and Jose Huizar and Genethia Hayes voted against one because, they said, the cuts would harm students.

Huizar said the elimination of the $4.9 million in discretionary funds will punish 170 schools that managed to finish with a surplus last year.

“That $4.9 million is supposed to supplement those schools in high-poverty areas,” he said. “Some of those schools already need those funds. It is unjust to cut from low-income schools.”

But Romer said that was the least disruptive choice.

“It is not easy to make budget cuts,” Romer said. “But I think one of the traditional ways to go about it is [to look at] who has money they are not yet using or not going to use,” he said.

The cuts come in response to higher-than-expected spending as well as to state budget cuts.

January’s reductions included $25 million in unspent funds for utilities, insurance and legal fees; $15 million for district office supplies; and $7 million for a counseling program that will instead be funded by Medi-Cal.