School district anticipated state cuts

At a special meeting held at Altimira Middle School on Tuesday night, the Board of Trustees of the Sonoma Valley Unified School District heard a presentation by Assistant Superintendent Justin Frese on the local district’s $37 million budget and how it is impacted by the new state budget deal. The meeting had been called in order to encourage public comment on the prospective budget cuts resulting from the financial crisis in Sacramento, and some 60 people attended, more than half of whom, according to several observers, were teachers and other district employees.
Roughly two thirds of the budget is “unrestricted” revenue derived from property taxes. Sonoma Valley is a “basic aid district,” which means that its revenue from those taxes already exceeds the revenue limit that the state guarantees all districts. The other third of the budget is “restricted” or “categorical” money that comes from the state. It is this latter portion that is to be cut by 15.4 percent in the present 2008-2009 school year and another 4.9 percent for 2009-2010.
Frese reported that the district had already budgeted for a 10 percent decrease in categorical funds for the present school year. Superintendent Pam Martens assured the audience that because of this, while the cuts will be significant, it does not represent here, the traumatic impact the state budget deal is having for other school districts that now have to consider wholesale program cuts.
Martens described the three-tier system that the state adopted for the required cuts to categorical funding. Much of that money comes as block grants for specific educational efforts, whether art, music, ninth grade class size reduction, or teacher training, to name a few among the dozens. For making cuts to those programs, districts are to be allowed extensive flexibility, so that rather than an across-the-board 15.4 percent cut, some programs might not be cut at all while others are cut more severely. It is those cuts that the district will wrestle with in coming weeks.
Another special board meeting has been scheduled for March 3, in order to hear further comments. Specific proposals from the district’s administrative team may be ready for discussion then, as well. At the regularly scheduled meeting on March 10, layoff notices will be approved for some number of teachers, effective at the start of the next school year. That’s being done to comply with the March 15 notification requirement under the labor union contract, in anticipation that some will be hired back for the following school year as available funding allows and enrollment dictates.
The bigger impact for the district in these difficult economic times may well be to the unrestricted funds that come from property taxes. With the county assessor’s office in Santa Rosa swamped with reassessments, it is expected that the growth in property tax revenue will not be as high as the 8 percent or higher figure seen in recent years. This growth arises as homes and other properties are reassessed upon sale, often for the first time in many decades. Frese explained that projections now at 6 percent growth would still keep the district’s budget balanced but that even a few percentage points lower could compound to a budget deficit as high as $2 million in three years’ time.
The revenue growth figures for 2008 are due to be released as early as April, according to Frese, which means that hard decisions on at least part of the budget may begin to be made by the trustees as soon as their April or May monthly meeting.
In response to numerous questions from staff and a few parents, the district administrators and the board repeatedly responded that no decisions have yet been made, that interpretations of the new state budget are still being written, and indeed that the state budget depends on approval by California voters of several ballot measures in May. School board president Dan Gustafson said, “This is an equation with too many variables. We don’t know enough to be concrete with you.”
Several questions centered on summer school this year, and Martens replied that she does expect summer school to be held, perhaps in an abbreviated form. Several questions pertained to class size reduction, both in the K-3 grades, which was not cut by the state, and in the ninth grade language arts. Trustees reassured questioners of the importance they attributed to class size reduction, though noting again that, “We don’t yet know what we’re really talking about,” in terms of the extent of cuts that may be required