GILROY
– If the state’s mid-year budget cuts happen as Gov. Gray Davis
has proposed, Gilroy Unified School District would have to trim its
own spending by $2 million over the next year and a half.
GILROY – If the state’s mid-year budget cuts happen as Gov. Gray Davis has proposed, Gilroy Unified School District would have to trim its own spending by $2 million over the next year and a half.
The multi-million-dollar cost cutting would be necessary even after the district digs into roughly $700,000 it has available to offset impending state budget cuts. And, any cost saving measure needs to happen before the district pays an anticipated 20 percent more for teachers’ health benefits.
“It’s unrealistic to think health benefit costs aren’t going to go up,” Superintendent Edwin Diaz said. “There will be a definite negative impact if we continue to pick up the full cost of health (insurance) increases.”
As the state braces for more than $1 billion in kindergarten through 12th-grade education cuts, contract negotiations with the district and the teachers’ union are ongoing.
That was the sobering news school board trustees received at their regular meeting Thursday, where district staff tried to paint the latest picture of how the state’s ballooning deficit projections – now at $34.8 billion and growing – will impact public education in Gilroy.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg. We’ll probably see greater cuts,” school board Trustee Jaime Rosso said.
The school board stopped short of formally endorsing any of the strategies state education officials are recommending to counterbalance budget cuts. Some of the fiscal strategies being discussed by state education leaders include:
• Allowing school districts to fall below their required amount of reserves – 3 percent of a district’s general operating budget. Gilroy Unified’s “rainy day” funds are worth more than $2 million – roughly the amount of money it will likely need to cut out of its current and next-year budget.
• Allowing school districts to increase the amount of students allowed per class, meaning less money would need to be spent on hiring teachers as enrollment increases.
• Allowing school districts to transfer funding originally earmarked for one program, such as special education, to another use, for instance, child nutrition services.
“The focus right now is on allowing flexibility at the local level,” Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Lee White said.
Trustees approved a timeline for the district to develop next year’s budget, starting with meetings in January after the Governor releases his recommended state budget for 2003-04.
White suggested the district make open to the public its budget workshops with the school board. The first such session will be held Jan. 23. A time and place have not yet been established.
“Now that we know there will be cuts in the middle of this year, we still have to build a budget for next year,” school board President Jim Rogers said.
