EDITORIAL: Little to love in schools' budget mess
OUR VIEW: NORTH COUNTY DISTRICTS' BUDGETING GETS UGLY
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North County school districts heading into the final few weeks of grappling with massive budget deficits are now facing the truly hard choices of employee layoffs versus furloughs versus pay cuts.
Local schools face a June 30 deadline for approving balanced budgets for the 2010-11 fiscal year that begins July 1. And they take both concepts (deadlines and balanced budgets) seriously, unlike the state Legislature, which gives lip service to both.
The relatively "easy" cuts, if you can call them that, have been made, but deficits remain. And for our local districts, the going has been ugly and isn't likely to get much better.
With the nearly bankrupt state slashing the amount of money it gives per student, districts up and down California have had to take cleavers to their budgets for a third straight year. And with no white knights in the form of federal "stimulus" funds on the horizon, and most reserve funds nearing "empty," the only major things left to cut are people and wages.
In the Poway Unified School District, officials are attempting to plug a total budget deficit of $24 million. Oceanside Unified faces a deficit of $19 million; Vista Unified, $18.3 million; Escondido Union (the elementary district), $11 million; and so the list goes.
The districts are counting on major savings in total employee compensation ---- the largest single component of any district's general expenses. Many districts are still negotiating those projected savings with some or all of their unions.
Most districts have imposed unpaid furlough days, meaning shorter school years. And almost all are laying off some employees, including the heart of public education ---- classroom teachers.
Retirements are helping some districts, such as Vista Unified, avoid the loss of "permanent" teaching