High school district eyes budget cuts
BY JEFF NACHTIGAL, Californian staff writerjnachtigal@bakersfield.com
Kern High School District trustees started tossing out ideas Monday for what to cut and not cut if the state slashes education funding because of its ballooning deficit.
Board President Joel Heinrichs summed up the top priorities if cuts are needed: protecting classroom teachers and instructional programs.
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The KHSD board also decided against a proposal that would have sent students to the Fox Theater to watch the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20.
Superintendent Don Carter said principals have made plans for cable TV and Internet access to provide coverage of the inauguration for students in classrooms.
School officials said the expense of transporting students plus hiring substitute teachers for classrooms raised the concern of spending extra money in the midst of a negative budget climate.
The Fox offered 500 balcony seats to create a student section, said Fox Theater manager Marcus Johnson.
“We felt this was a way to bring the community together to an event that's had so much attention and because of the historic nature of it,” said Johnson, who said the free screening was not affiliated with any political party or candidate.
Trustees’ ideas for saving money included implementing online courses; streamlining bus service so students could walk to schools within a mile of home; cutting district vehicle use; dropping the junior varsity level in some sports; using a lecture hall format for some courses such as history; and capturing more revenue from home-school participants by allowing kids to take part in after-school activities such as sports and music at local schools.
Based on a projected state revenue shortfall of $10 billion in October, KHSD expected a $12 million reduction. On Monday, Dennis Scott, associate superintendent of business, presented a state budget forecast that projects the deficit growing to $40 billion by June 2010.
The state deficit means cuts to education are a foregone conclusion. The remaining questions are how deep the cuts will be, and if the state legislature will be able to pass a new budget before Jan. 10, when Gov. Schwarzenegger presents his new budget.
KHSD can’t make any clear budget decisions until the legislature passes a state budget.
Figuring into the discussion was the proposed Career Technical Education program, which would establish distinct “pathways” to graduation, including a four-year college-prep focus and a technical career track.
Pending a board vote in February or March, the technical education program is tentatively scheduled to begin in fall 2009.
Officials also discussed developing a three-year plan to avoid dipping into reserves.
Adding to the budget complexity, the district and its union-represented employees are in the final year of their contract, meaning staffing decisions that are announced March 15 will have to be considered as budget cuts are figured.
Reiterating his call for action, Scott told the board: “I suspect we will have to make substantial reductions. We have to make cuts, or someone else gets to make the decisions.”
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