School District Struggles With Budget Problems

Despite already numerous budget cuts, the Burlingame School District must continue tightening its belt.

This was the message Burlingame Assistant Superintendent Robert Clark delivered to the Board of Trustees at their regular meeting Tuesday night, along with news that the district had a substantial operating deficit during the 2009-2010 budget year.

"I caution the board and the district that it's really time we start living within our means," Clark told trustees.

During the fiscal year ended June 30, the district overspent its budget by $800,717. The district's current budget projects a deficit of $1.673 million, more than double that of last year.     

Despite a projected decline of three percent in its unrestricted reserves -- from 16 percent to 13 percent -- board clerk Michael Barber remained optimistic that Burlingame was faring better than other school districts during the tough times.

 "I hear the warnings, but the trend historically has been positive in this district," said Barber.  "Numbers always look horrible, but so far we've been able to avoid the horror show…so far."

While acknowledging that Burlingame was coping better with state budget cuts than other school districts, Clark said reduced revenue will eventually catch up with the district as the steady stream of federal stimulus money dries up.

"Over the last couple of years, we've adopted budgets with operational deficits," he said. "At some point and time you can't do that anymore.  My concern for the future is that we're not getting federal stimulus money anymore that we've had over the last couple of years, which saved us in a lot of areas."

By mid-October district officials anticipate receiving between $425,000 and $475,000 in stimulus money from the recently-passed federal jobs bill.  However, the one-time windfall will be restricted to hiring new staff or retaining current employees.

Over the next three years, the district anticipates losing $1.887 million in state revenue, which could signal tough decisions regarding future program cuts.

"We're getting approximately $1,200 less per student than we should be getting, and that has an impact," Clark said. "Take $1,200 times 2,500 students and you're talking about a few million dollars we don't have.  At some point we're going to have to talk about program reductions."

In December the district will most likely begin discussing other areas for potential budget cutting, although plans for a new school at the Hoover site, that will be funded primarily through bonds and construction grants, is unlikely to be affected. 

However, trustee Davina Drabkin is worried that programs enriching student learning experiences could potentially be in danger.

"The objective when you have to cut is always to stay as far away from the classroom and students as you can," Drabkin said. "I'm worried that we have already cut a lot of the stuff that's away from the students and, year after year, we face the threat of getting closer to the students."

Besides the dismal budget news, trustees discussed a report from the special education department review, which suggested ways for the district to strengthen its programs while reducing costs, a $2,059,000 contract for the modernization of classrooms at Franklin Elementary School and Roosevelt Elementary School and were told the summer school had 227 students and 12 teachers.