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CUSD Still ‘Not Out of the Woods’ as State Legislators Work Toward Final Budget
From
staff reports
COMPTON – “When
it comes to the Compton Unified School District’s (CUSD) budget,
we’re definitely not out of the woods,” said CUSD Superintendent
Kaye Burnside Ed.D.
“While Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget
plan provides for $56.8 billion in funding, it also calls for $4 billion
less than
what California schools need to maintain existing levels of service,” Burnside
said. “For that reason, we’re still facing cuts in important
CUSD instructional programs that help students meet high performance
expectations.”
Meanwhile, both the senate and assembly have passed versions of the
budget that reject the governor’s proposed across-the-board cuts
to most categorical programs, fully fund Proposition 98 and provide
a modest cost of living adjustment (COLA). However, according to State
Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’ Connell, much remains
to be negotiated, including a final COLA agreement, in a year when
California faces an extreme budget deficit and an uncertain economy.
CUSD, like other school districts throughout the state, is facing yet
another fiscal hurdle. It’s entered the 2008-09 fiscal year,
which began on July 1, without a state budget. In a letter to state
lawmakers, State Controller John Chiang described the major payments
his office can and cannot make without a state budget in place.
“As the state’s chief fiscal officer, I have the authority
to pay for some essential services in the absence of a budget,” Chiang
said, “But without a signed budget in place, I am legally prohibited
from making necessary payments to school education programs, community
colleges, local governments and vendors doing business with the state.”
Even without a budget, Chiang still has the authority to pay for vital
services including basic funding for schools. This includes constitutionally
provided payments based on average daily attendance (ADA).
“However, without a state budget in place this month, the state
controller cannot pay school districts, including Compton Unified,
for categorical
programs such as special education and remedial summer school,” Burnside
pointed out.
CUSD has been in negotiations with all five employee unions for the
2007-08 school year. According to Burnside, those negotiations have
been adversely impacted by the governor’s proposed budget cuts. “As
part of our negotiations, the district proposed salary increases,” said
Burnside. “We were poised to settle at the proposed amounts and
informed our unions that we could go no further until we received the
results of our fiscal audit and final budget information from the state.”
In response, a number of the unions have elected to wait in the hopes
that the information from the state and the fiscal audit will provide
for additional salary increases. “We cannot consider increasing
those proposed raises because we don’t know if we’ll be
able to cover the costs over time,” Burnside explained. “We
don’t want to give salary increases and then have to take them
back.”
Results of the district’s fiscal audit are scheduled for presentation
on Aug. 26 at the CUSD board of trustees’ meeting. The audit’s
findings will include a review of the district’s proposed 2008-09
budget and an assessment of the sustainability of the proposed budget
including all proposed salary increases.
In his May revision, the governor produced a revised budget that fully
funds education under Proposition 98, increasing funding to K-14 education
over the current year by almost $200 million. He also proposed fully
funding the Proposition 98 minimum guarantee in 2008-09 by proposing
$1.8 billion in additional general fund dollars for K-12 education
and community colleges.
“Although we’re hopeful, we remain concerned because the
governor has not lifted his proposal to cut various categorical programs
which
leaves us facing a 10-percent cut in CUSD categorical programs,” said
Burnside. “If the legislature approves the governor’s revised
proposal, we’ll be able to move forward with the staffing that
we had previously planned, but we will not yet know the impact to our
educational programs because of the cuts to our categorical programs.”
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