Burlingame is Singing the School District Budget Blues

With the California state legislature still at a standoff on the state budget, and Governor Jerry Brown unable to get agreement to put a tax extension measure on the June ballot, the is preparing for the grim reality of further reduced state funding for the next school year.

“Burlingame has been like a beautiful island in a nasty storm,” said Robert Clark, district assistant superintendent and chief business official. This year, other nearby districts increased class size and instituted furlough days. Burlingame, however, managed to reduce some services without taking more drastic actions. But Burlingame may soon be going down this path, too.

At meetings in the next two months, school board members will discuss a laundry list of cuts and reductions, including increasing class size from 22 to 25 in grades one through three, increasing class size at to 27, and adding five furlough days.

 “We’ve managed to trim and make reductions, but now there is nothing left to trim,” added Clark. “I feel for the school board, and I don’t envy their role now.”

At the school board meeting on March 22, when the tax extension measure on the June ballot was still a possibility, the Board gave direction to district staff to set $800,000 as a target for budget reductions for the 2011-2012 school year.  With a total school district budget of approximately $20 million, this reduction means deep cuts. The Board reviewed a list of possible budget cuts and began prioritizing them.

In addition to furlough days and increased class size, ideas for saving money include eliminating reading specialist staff; reducing staff for English learner specialists, physical education, music, libraries and counseling; reducing maintenance, custodial and gardening staff; and reducing the site budget for students.

 The news that there will be no tax extension measure on the June ballot means a loss of $11 billion in revenue to the state coffers. School districts have been told to brace for a reduction of $350 per student. That translates to a total loss of $982,000 for the coming school year for Burlingame―and an additional $182,000 beyond the $800,000 the Board had initially targeted for budget reductions.

Michael Barber, a Burlingame school board trustee since 1999, said this is probably the worst budget crisis he has seen during his tenure. “We’ve had bumpy rides in the past, but not like this―four years in a row of budget cuts,” he said.

He said that Burlingame has weathered the crisis better than some other districts, which in the past few years have seen class sizes rise to 30 and their school year shortened.

The Burlingame School District has managed to keep a healthy reserve of 13 to 15 percent of its budget over the past few years. The trustees could decide to draw on the reserve along with making reductions, as they have done in the past few years.

“However, it’s generally not a good practice to dip into savings to balance the budget,” said Clark. “We have to be conservative. As Ron Bennett of School Services of California likes to say, ‘Hope is not a plan.’”

The Board will be discussing the budget at its regularly scheduled meetings over the course of the next two months, and public comment is welcome. The next scheduled meeting is April 12 at 7 p.m. at the district office. By law, the district must adopt a budget for the next school year by June 15, 2011.