Santa Ana Schools on Track After Fiscal Crisis

After months of concern about a looming multimillion-dollar shortfall, Santa Ana school officials say cost-saving measures and an improved state budget forecast have put the district back on stable footing.

In late June, the school district’s board of trustees is expected to approve a preliminary budget for coming years that includes a smaller-than-feared increase in class sizes and predicts fiscal solvency through the 2006-07 school year. That’s a dramatic turnaround from recent months, when local and county officials braced for a $29.8-million hole in Santa Ana Unified’s $450-million annual budget.

“We’re obviously feeling a lot better now than we were,” said board President Rob Richardson. “We’ve done a lot of work to get to this point.”

Since October, when the shortfall was announced, district officials have been warning of drastic measures, including elimination of nearly 400 teaching jobs, a popular class-size-reduction program in primary grades and in some art and music programs.

Orange County education officials put the district on notice that, if it did not make changes, it would not have enough operating money in coming years and would run afoul of a state law requiring school districts to formulate three-year budget plans.

The budget picture improved considerably in March, when teachers and administrators agreed to a 4% pay cut lasting two years -- a move that will save more than $10 million each year. Some increase in class sizes and the elimination of 420 jobs -- 290 of them teaching positions -- covered the remaining deficit.

Associate Supt. Don Stabler said no teachers were laid off, as most of those job cuts were made through an early-retirement program and resignations. Layoffs of nonteaching staffers are still possible.

Santa Ana Unified is also helped by approval of Propositions 57 and 58 in March, Stabler said: They authorized the sale of state budget-balancing bonds, which in turn allows more state funding to schools.