BSD: Second Interim Budget Approved

The Board of Trustees unanimously approved the second interim budget at their meeting Tuesday night, which led to debate as to where future cuts should be made.

The 2010-2011 budget was adopted with a $1.678 million operational deficit, and the district was at about a $1 million deficit with the , said district Assistant Superintendent and Chief Business Official Robert Clark.

The projected ending balance of the 2010-2011 budget is $3,418,915 with 14.18 percent reserves. The first interim budget predicted reserves of 10.14 percent. 

This notable change between the two budget reports is a result of a decrease in expenditures of about $300,000 and an increase in revenues of about $475,000.

“Really a huge part of that…is the federal jobs money,” Clark said, along with deferred maintenance government funds. “It’s one of those revenues that you don’t count on until you get the check, and that was actually quite a surprise.”

Additional revenue came from adjusting benefit spending. Clark said they budget for each employee using 100 percent of his or her benefits at the beginning of the year, and adjust those numbers as the year progresses and they can track how much benefit money has been spent.

However, the board was forced to discuss potential spending cuts pending state budget deficits that could lead to decreased school funding in the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 school years. District officials factored in a $350 Average Daily Attendance (ADA) funding reduction and the possibility of a tax extension measure failure. The tax extension would provide some financial relief to California schools, however, it has not yet been put on the June 2011 ballot, and even then it would need to pass for schools to benefit.

“To date they have not taken action in Sacramento to put the measure on the ballot,” Clark said. However, he said he believes if it can get on the ballot, it has a good chance of being extended.

Without that measure, Burlingame School District is looking at 9.5 percent reserves for 2011-2012 and 4.67 reserves for 2012-2013. Those funding levels would necessitate $721,000 in expenditure reductions for the next school year.

In order to prepare for this budget reduction, district staff complied a list of 30 possible expendable items, ranging from full-time positions to class size to furlough days.

“They followed our instructions to lay everything out,” said Trustee Michael Barber. “Because the worst case scenario is really, really ugly.”

Louise Simson, an instructional aide at , said it was time to consider increasing class sizes instead of cutting everything else that enhances a child’s education, such as music specialists, the district’s only bilingual aide, technology staff that maintain the district’s smart boards, computers and other high-tech equipment and counselors.

“We can’t keep up this model of cutting everything but class sizes,” she said. “Decimating our support services…isn’t the answer.”

Trustees agreed that many staff positions, such as the bilingual aide, English learner specialist staff members and reading specialist staff members, are serving critical populations at the schools, and should be considered last for cuts.

They suggested starting with cutting programs like the Kohl Mansion music program and staff development days first, then moving forward from there.