Tuesday is D-Day for MDUSD Budget

Beware the ides of March: Tuesday is the day for school districts in California to submit their 2011-12 budgets, and the Mount Diablo Unified School Board will vote on its second interim budget tonight.

It's not pretty.

According to a missive sent to all MDUSD families by Loreen Joseph, assistant to Superintendent Stephen Lawrence, the second interim budget must be adopted by the school board by March 15 and then must be provided to the County Office of Education for review.

The notice—seen in PDF format here— says that this year’s second interim budget is particularly challenging because all districts in Contra Costa County have been directed to assume the governor’s budget proposal will not move forward—the tax extensions will either not make it onto the June ballot or be defeated—and MDUSD will have to reduce its funding $350 per pupil. However, there have been estimates that districts could expect cuts up to $780 per pupil. That's $11.5 million in cuts, and possibly nearly $22 billion, to fully accommodate the 2011-2012 budget.

The board meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Monte Gardens Elementary, 3841 Larkspur Drive in Concord. You can read the agenda here.