School Budgets Hang in Balance

By Patric Hedlund

California Governor Jerry Brown said Tuesday, March 29 that he is finished negotiating with Republicans in Sacramento. He issued a list of 53 concessions he said he has made in an effort “to meet them halfway.” He charged that the opposition party members were not bargaining in good faith.

Brown seeks to put a ballot measure before the public to extend current sales, vehicle and income tax provisions in order to avoid making what some say are “catastrophic cuts” to public education.

Without that tax income, $349 per student will be cut from the El Tejon Unified School District’s budget. With the tax extensions, $19 per student will still be cut, ETUSD finance manager Terri Geivet told the board in March.

Over the past three years, while the state legislators have been unable to solve the $26 billion state deficit problem, the local district has eliminated about 17 jobs, with 9.5 more targeted for this year. Geivet has presented a draft interim budget to the board that the county superintendent of schools has categorized as “qualified,” meaning that the district may be in jeopardy of not meeting its financial obligations beyond the upcoming two years.

Historically, ETUSD has been the largest employer in this area. “We’re being hit by a double whammy,” Geivet told trustees last month. State allocations per student are being cut at the same time that over a million dollars is being lost due to falling enrollment.

This is part of the April 01, 2011 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

Have an opinion on this matter? We'd like to hear from you.