OJAI VALLEY : School District OKs $15.3-Million Budget

The Board of Education for the Ojai Valley Unified School District has unanimously approved a $15.3-million budget for next year with a deficit of more than $85,000.

It will be the third year in a row that the school system has run a deficit. The budget was passed at Tuesday night’s board meeting.

Assistant Supt. Ron Barney said a dearth of state funding is mostly to blame for the deficits.

“For four straight years, the state hasn’t increased their funding, but our expenses have gone up with inflation,” Barney said.

If state funding doesn’t improve next year, the district will have to consider increasing class sizes, he said.

“We’ll be forced to employ fewer teachers because we can only dip into our reserves to a point. We can’t let them go below 3%,” he said.

The biggest chunk of the budget goes toward the salaries and benefits of the school system’s 320 employees.

They will receive about $13 million, or 87% of next year’s funding. There are $150,000 in raises budgeted for teachers next year.

Other items adding to the deficit are debt payments on additional classroom space at three schools. There are eight schools in the 3,900-student district.

To help make up for the shortfall, the district is cutting back on transportation for the athletic department, building maintenance, and computerizing more offices and classrooms.

“Improving classroom technology has definitely suffered because there just isn’t the money,” Barney said.