La Puente : School Cost Cuts Sought

School bus fees, fewer teachers’ aides and a shortage of educational supplies are among the prospects for the 5,000 students in the Bassett Unified School District as administrators struggle to cut $800,000 from the district’s budget.

The shortfall is the result of spiraling property insurance rates, a tight fiscal year in Sacramento and the high cost of busing students, said Lowell Shira, assistant superintendent in charge of administrative services.

Expenditures for bus service, now slated to consume $206,000 of the 1986-87 budget, are the most likely to be cut, Shira said, adding that the district receives only $3,000 a year from the state toward busing costs. “That’s $203,000 right out of the classroom,” Shira said.

Despite the shortfall, the district’s student-teacher ratio should remain the same and few, if any, enrichment programs will feel the effects of the cuts, Shira said. The district is scheduled to adopt a tentative budget later this month.