School Board Finds More Funds, Brings Back Programs

The financial future of the Burlingame School District may be looking up, but Assistant Superintendent and Chief Business Official Robert Clark warned that the board must proceed with caution.

With the release of Gov. Jerry Brown’s new budget, schools can expect flat funding for the 2011-2012 school year, or the same amount per student they received over the 2010-2011 year. This differs from the previously discussed $350 per student cut in funding the board has spent the past couple months grappling with.

However, the message BSD is receiving from groups like School Services of California and School Innovations and Advocacy suggests until the budget is enacted, schools should prepare for both the best and worst case scenarios.

“[They say] plan for flat funding, but keep the money in reserves just in case,” Clark said. “Plan for the revenues, but don’t add any expenditures.”

For the past couple months, the school board has been working through a list of potential funding cuts with the goal of reaching $800,000 in reductions—the amount necessary in a worst case situation. With expected revenues of $300,000 from the  (BCE) and $200,000 from the Game On campaign, the board members needed to address $300,000 in cuts.

As of Tuesday night’s meeting, they had given the ok on discontinuing the Kohl Mansion music program, cancelling the August 19 staff development day, replacing the substitute teacher caller with an automated system, reducing site budgets from $35 per student to $30 per student, discontinuing staff development throughout the school year, changing the all-call system, and eliminating one custodian position, one technical department position and the family life instructor.

Together, these cuts account for $247,150 in savings.

However, as of Tuesday afternoon, Game On had raised $350,000, leaving the board about $100,000 over its reduction target. This, coupled with likely flat funding, provides the district some leeway in its budget.

Given these new developments, Vice President Michael Barber called for flexibility in the budget and expressed concerns that the district's reserves could get too high.

“We’re talking about a parcel tax in November,” he said. “We also need to make sure in September our reserve is not too high, because if the reserve is quite high in September as it could be, that would not sell well in a parcel tax campaign.”

The parcel tax remains important to address the structural deficit in the budget since BCE and Game On funding are one-time contributions and do not address further budget shortfalls down the line.

Barber also said that the budget must include reinstating some lost programs to show Game On contributors what their money achieved.

“There’s a lot of people contributing to Game On that are going to want to see something next year,” Barber said. “But if we go into next year and a lot of things are missing [like physical education and music]…we’re gong to lose the future Game On contributors.”

Given current funding but keeping in mind the parcel tax and possibility that cuts of $350 per student do go through, the board voted to reinstate art and music programs at their previous levels and increase class size in grades one through three to 25 to 1.

Teachers at the meeting agreed on their ability to handle 25 students at once and the importance of bringing back other educational programs.

Depending on how much money the school ends up with in June once the state budget should actually be enacted, the board will look at bringing back more programs, such as staff development, custodians and the family life instructor.