Santa Ana Unified Gets Advice

The Orange County Department of Education has hired an independent consultant to help guide the Santa Ana Unified board of trustees through a series of spending cuts aimed at closing a $30-million budget shortfall.

The consultant, Ronald W. Bennett, made clear to trustees after being introduced Tuesday night that they will have to show great discretion in spending the district’s limited funds.

“You have the money to do whatever you want,” he said, “but you do not have enough money to do everything you want.”

The district’s projected three-year budget, presented by the district to county education officials in December, forecasts that its reserves will run dry in two years unless a series of drastic spending cuts are adopted.

Trustees reacted Tuesday night to the latest budget assessments with a mixture of gallows humor and furrowed brows.

Don Stabler, the associate superintendent for business services, reviewed cuts that trustees have approved for the current year and further reductions scheduled for next year.

The list included the elimination of the popular class-size reduction program next year in order to drop 393 elementary school teachers off the district’s payroll. The board has also approved firing at least 54 teachers in higher grades and cuts to security and custodial staffs.

“You have seen storm clouds coming,” board president Rob Richardson said to the small crowd of parents, district staff and teachers who attended the meeting. “There’s going to be a bit of a storm here.”

Trustees must notify teachers of their possible layoffs by March 10, even though they won’t know how many positions must be eliminated until the state adopts its budget in the summer or fall.

Stabler reminded the board that roughly $12 million in further cuts are needed to keep the district afloat in future years.

District Supt. Al Mijares has publicly pressured teachers to make concessions in contract negotiations in order to help stabilize the district’s finances.

Negotiations have stalled, and state labor officials are considering whether to appoint a mediator to assist in the talks.

Bennett, president of School Services of California, emphasized to the board that, like all of California’s school districts, Santa Ana’s future is largely out its own hands. Much depends, he said, on the March 2 passage of a $15-billion bond proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to help close the state’s staggering budget gap and whether legislators adopt the governor’s proposed budget.

The governor has indicated he would increase state funds for school districts, which in Santa Ana might mean an additional $6.3 million.

“In two years,” Bennett said, “I predict that Santa Ana will be basically in the same position as other California districts. Depending on the state’s recovery, that could put them in the middle of a very good lot or a very bad one.”

Santa Ana’s financial problems are exacerbated by stagnant enrollment growth and the labor negotiations, which are unrelated to the state budget.