'Hit by a steamroller'

Almost no program has been spared the pain of more than $1.5 million in cuts approved for the upcoming 2009-10 school year in the Trinity Alps Unified School District budget adopted last week by the district board of trustees.

"It kind of feels like we've been hit by a steamroller," said Keith Groves as he and other board members reluctantly voted to approve the $8.2 million spending plan that reflects a $1.6 million, one-year drop in revenue and includes $1,518,269 in cuts from the prior year's budget.

Even so, with expected revenues reduced to $7.6 million, the budget anticipates a year-end deficit of $636,441 to be covered by transfers from diminishing reserves as federal funding under the Secure Rural Schools and Communities Self-Determination Act ramps down and disappears in three more years.

The district has attempted to plan for that day, but the state of California has continued to surprise this year with massive cuts to education in its attempt at resolving a $24.3 billion statewide deficit.

The 2008-09 school year marked the first for the newly unified district enrolling approximately 800 students at Weaverville Elementary School, Trinity High School and Alps View Continuation High School.

With unification came an increase in the state-funded revenue limit based on average daily attendance (ADA) from $5,516 per student per day to $7,253, but that revenue has currently dropped to $5,573 per ADA due to state spending cuts. Enrollment is also on the decline, meaning fewer heads to count.

Cuts came mid-year after expenditures were already committed to and included not only the reduction in ADA revenue, but also reductions amounting to nearly 20 percent in categorical funds provided for specific education programs.

To help school districts offset some of the impact, the state is relaxing its standards for class size reduction funding and allowing greater flexibility in how the remaining categorical funds are spent, "which is nice, but it doesn't fix the problem. It doesn't re- store the funding," said the district's fiscal officer Cindy Blanchard as she presented the proposed budget line by line to the board of trustees for adoption last week.

Further budget actions that may be taken at the state level are unknown and could force additional cuts, not to mention tapping into next year's Secure Rural Schools money and borrowing from retirement fund accounts to cover cash flow needs that may arise as the state defers payments that are due.

Once the state adopts a budget, the school district will revise its own that District Superintendent Ed Traverso said was developed on the conservative side "with the philosophy that it's easier to add money back than to subtract more."

To meet earlier deadlines, the district has already issued layoff notices or reduced hours for the coming school year affecting the equivalent of 17 full-time certificated teachers, making use of an August layoff window for the first time in history as well as the traditional March opening.

Classified staff including teachers' aides, library assistants, noon duty supervisors and cafeteria workers have also been reduced or eliminated if hired after the district unified. State law guarantees two years of employment to classified staff hired prior to unification, but the district has applied for a waiver of that requirement to allow itself more flexibility — a request that is scheduled to be heard by the State Board of Education next week.

The approved budget contains a total cut of $1,008,989 in employee salaries and benefits including some extra-duty stipends for assistant coaches and advisors for various athletic and academic programs. There were three classified employees who retired and will not be replaced and the district is planning to get by with fewer substitute teachers, in part by reducing travel for athletics that takes teachers out of the classroom.

The budget for books and supplies has been reduced from last year by $250,954. The category includes not only student text books and reference materials, but also computers, software, general office supplies, athletic supplies and materials for art and music instruction.

Summer school has been eliminated and the district's cost for athletics programs has been reduced by approximately $45,000 through cuts in transportation, fuel, supplies and equipment as well as stipends for assistant coaches.

Since the stipends were cut, many community volunteers have stepped up to help the coaches. The reduction in transportation, fuel, hotel and meal costs will be made by limiting travel distances, taking one bus to games instead of two and recruiting volunteer drivers for district vans or in personal vehicles under certain circumstances allowed by district policy.

Many other cuts in services and contracts include elimination of three copy machines when their leases are up in November, elimination of one trash pickup a week at the high school and a reduction in general maintenance of facilities.

A 65 percent cut in state funding for home-to-school transportation recently proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger amounts to the anticipated loss of $252,335 to Trinity Alps Unified. That hit is reflected in cuts spread throughout the budget amounting to an increased general fund contribution for transportation of nearly $152,000 over the prior year.

Traverso said more significant cuts in the transportation budget are not possible unless the district gets its requested waiver allowing it to cut classified staff including bus drivers.

A bus replacement plan using a $108,000 grant obtained by the district has been placed on hold since it would require a match of $50,000 from the district that is not in the budget at this time.

To offset a few of the losses, the district has budgeted to receive $251,442 in federal stimulus funds — one-time revenue from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act — but to spend only $125,721 in the coming year and the remainder in the following year if the money isn't shifted instead to college-level education as has been proposed.

Fiscal Officer Cindy Blanchard ended her presentation with a required multi-year budget projection, saying that as bad as the situation is currently, it looks worse in the future as the district's year-end beginning balances diminish and the Secure Rural Schools funding goes away.

"It shows us cutting another $1 million over three years when our plan was to be flush by then, and we'll be borrowing from ourselves to cover cash flow," Traverso said.

"We're all in a boat together and we've got to hold it up together, but there's holes being poked in it every day," Blanchard said.