School Districts Fear Budget Will Lead to Funding Crisis in ’93 : Education: Officials warn of more cuts next year due to inflation, rising enrollments and shrinking state funds.

Although the state’s new $57-billion budget will not affect education spending this year, Ventura County officials say the budget deal sets the stage for another school funding crisis next year.

The state budget approved last week guarantees that schools will receive the same amount of money per pupil as last year by borrowing $973 million against future education spending. The money will have to be paid back by school districts over the next two years, thereby reducing state funding.

The result is that most of Ventura County’s 20 school districts will not have to cut deeper into their budgets this year. Several districts have already reduced spending by cutting back on personnel and special education programs.

But officials warned that school districts next year will be faced with more cuts as they struggle to keep pace with inflation and student enrollment growth, while at the same time receiving less money from the state.

Officials said school districts will have little choice but to once again plow into their reserves or eliminate jobs to make ends meet.

The Conejo Valley Unified School District, which this year cut 27 positions to erase a $2.7-million budget shortfall, may have to cut as much as $2 million from its $70-million budget next year, said Sarah Hart, the district’s finance director.

“This is just going to delay the crisis,” Hart said.

As part of the state budget agreement, the Legislature approved Gov. Pete Wilson’s so-called “poison pill” provision that in effect suspends Proposition 98, a voter-approved measure that sets a minimum level of state revenues for elementary and secondary schools.

The suspension will allow the state to borrow nearly $1 billion against future education spending.

“Ultimately, the ones that are being harmed are the young people,” said Robert Smith, director of business services for the county superintendent of schools.

“In the past, we seemed to have been able to weather the storm with ever decreasing dollars,” Smith said. “But one wonders how much further we can go and still have an education system. Young people are our future, and for the benefit of the state and the country, they have to be the priority.”

In addition to Conejo Valley, other school districts in the county are also bracing for hard times next year.

“It’s going to be tough,” said Joseph Richards Jr., assistant superintendent of business services for the Ventura Unified School District. Richards, whose district had to slash $2.4 million from its $57-million budget this year by cutting 16 elementary teaching jobs and 21 staff positions, said the district may be facing more cuts next year.

“We’re down to the bone,” Richards said. “So we could see the same type of decrease in expenditures, either from layoffs or employees benefits. It would have to come from those areas.”

Rising costs for utilities, insurance, supplies and employee benefits are blamed for driving up expenditures in most school districts.

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This year the Ventura school district spent $15 million on health and welfare benefits, up $3 million from last year. A large chunk of that--$3.6 million--will be spent on retirees, who receive lifetime medical benefits.

Richards said the district is working with the employees union to either limit the amount of coverage offered to retirees, as most districts do, or eliminate such benefits altogether.

“It was imperative to do this before the budget was passed,” he said. “It is even more imperative now.”

Other districts are also moving to reduce their operating expenses.

To help offset a 16% increase in its transportation contract, the Conejo Valley district will begin charging students for bus transportation this year. It will be the only district in the county charging for transportation services--$450 annually for each student.

Administrators said the move will save the district an estimated $400,000.

Pleasant Valley, Moorpark and Simi Valley school districts are also considering charging for home-to-school transportation.

In light of the new budget, Shirley Carpenter, superintendent of the Pleasant Valley School District, said the option of charging for transportation appears more attractive.

“It looks like we definitely will have to go that route to continue busing,” Carpenter said. “But I don’t know if that would happen this year or next year.”

Carpenter said it is also too early to say what other actions the district would have to take next year to further reduce spending. She said Pleasant Valley has had to cut $2.5 million out of its budget over the last two years, mostly by eliminating teaching, staff and administrative positions.

“Our cuts have already gone deep,” she said. “I don’t have any idea how we’re going to hang on.”

County school officials said they plan to attend a special workshop in Anaheim this week to learn more about the details of the state budget and how it will affect their individual districts.

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Meanwhile, Assemblyman Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria) said there is some good news for schools in the budget even though he is generally disappointed in its education provisions.

O’Connell, whose 35th Assembly District stretches from Ventura to Santa Barbara, said the Legislature approved two bills he sponsored that he feels will “soften the blow” to school districts across the state.

He said one piece of legislation will allow school districts to increase the amount of money they receive from new residential development projects from $1.75 a square foot to as much as $2.75 a square foot, beginning Jan. 1.

O’Connell said he was also successful in getting a measure placed on the June, 1994, ballot that, if approved by voters, will make it easier for school districts to raise money for much-needed projects.

The ballot measure will allow voters to decide whether they want local bond measures for school construction projects to pass with a majority vote, rather than the current two-thirds vote.

“This was the biggest win in the Legislature this year,” O’Connell said of the ballot measure.

State Sen. Gary Hart (D-Santa Barbara) said he voted against the state budget package because of its impact on education.

Hart, whose district sweeps across Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, noted that the new budget will force student fees to increase by 24% at University of California campuses and 40% at Cal State University campuses beginning Jan. 1. Student fees at community colleges will also increase from $6 per unit to $10 per unit.

But Hart said he was particularly incensed that the budget for the University of California system was cut $250 million, while only $100 million was taken from prisons.

“We’re putting more priority on prisons than education,” said Hart, a former high school teacher. “I think our priorities are misplaced.”

Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) said the Legislature had little choice but to cut into education spending just as it did other areas. Moreover, she said, education officials offered no alternatives to reduce spending.

“The education coalition in Sacramento didn’t want to take a cut, they just wanted more money,” Wright said.

The assemblywoman, whose district straddles Ventura and Los Angeles counties, said that in the future, school districts will have to do the same as other government agencies and find ways to “operate more efficiently.”