Castro Valley School District Reviews 'Best' and 'Worst' Case Scenarios of Governor's Budget Proposal

With Gov. Jerry Brown's budget proposal under way and cuts looming for public schools statewide, the is "planning for the worst and hoping for the best" based on the tax initiative that will be placed on the ballot this November.

The school district is projecting $2 million in cuts for education. However, school officials won't know for certain on how much the district will receive until after the outcome of November's election.

The tax initiative is expected to raise $6.9 billion. However, education funding is still at risk.

CVUSD is looking at a loss between $400,000 and $3.5 million, depending on the November vote.

Since school districts are required to submit their budgets by June 30, CVUSD is planning around the $3.5 million in case this is the scenario it may face.

"It's hard to get your head around that [$3.5 million] cut even after what we've been through," said Mike Bush, assistant superintendent of business services.

He presented a review of the governor's 2012-2013 budget and the two scenarios during last Thursday's school board meeting.

In both scenarios, transportation funding — which comes to about $285,000 — would be completely lost.

"This is awful. We need to find something else to call it," said CVUSD board member Jo Loss about the title of "best" case scenario. "That is worse and then it gets worser," she joked.

In reality, the impact of Gov. Brown's proposal on the school district is no joking matter.

Bush said that a Proposition 98 increase of $4.9 billion would defer cash instead of restoring it because it does not provide any new spendable funding.

The failure to pass the tax initiative would result in a trigger reduction of $4.8 billion. About $2.6 billion in cuts would go toward Prop. 98 and $2.2 billion would go toward additional deferrals.

A weighted student funding formula would be phased in over the next five years and would include anything from English learners to students on free and reduced-price lunches.

Bush said the legislature had tied up money and ordered that it be spent a certain way. However, it did not necessarily focus on what local, individual districts wanted.

"I think it's a bit unfair," Bush said.

The proposal will move toward eliminating mandated programs and create a $200 million block grant for the remaining programs, which will be allocated on a revenue limit of the per Average Daily Attendance (ADA) basis.

However, the number also varies depending on the tax initiative. The per ADA reduction can be anywhere from $13 to $370 per student.

Cuts in the revenue limit are expected to result in a loss of more than $5 million per year for the CVUSD.

Although one-time funding and district reserves cannot replace the ongoing revenue reductions, Bush said they have lessened the impact of potential cuts.

He concluded that all the numbers are driven by a failing economy.

Until November's election, Bush said the school district remains uncertain on where exactly it stands on the impact the budget proposal will have on it.

"I have no way in letting the board know if we're winners of losers under this," Bush said.