AUHSD faces bleak budget prospects

Anderson Union High School District officials designed a budget for the 2009-2010 school year without any drastic changes, but unless there is a surprising change in school budget trends, they said they'll have to start making some hard decisions for the coming years.

Throughout the 2008-2009 school year, budget projections have been shaky. Anderson Union School District officials have tried to shave off any extra expenditures.

They've laid off employees, enacted hiring freezes, made cuts to programs and eliminated class size reduction.

Ongoing state revenue cuts for 2008 and 2009 total $1,409,244 and California school districts are expecting more revenue cuts to come.

"We've never seen anything like this before. The crisis across the nation is just about as bad as it's been since the great depression," said Megan Curtis, AUHS chief financial officer.

In spite the state and national fiscal crisis, the district officials report their current financial condition as sound.

"We are basically using our reserves, but that can only last so long," Curtis said.

"In order to address this imbalance, we are going to have to find some programs that we can remove, that we can cut back. We are going to have to, as a district and as a board, prioritize the programs in the school district," Curtis said.

Curtis said the district has taken dollars from their lottery fund and put it into economic reserves to design this budget. If trends continue, by the 2011-2012 school year, Curtis projects the district would have to take a million dollars from the lottery into their economic reserve.

"That's all of it, and we're still not going to make it," she said.

"We are gambling on a better future in a sense," said board member Ron Brown. "Because we could do some very drastic things."

Board members and district administration brought up options for the future including closing one of the high school campuses. This would save the district a significant amount of money, but they said the political and logistical implications of doing this would make it a difficult option.

Other options brought up but not discussed in depth included eliminating or restructuring school transportation and sharing more services with other local school districts that are also in fiscal trouble.

"These are the discussions that need to start taking place now on a regular basis," superintendent Azevedo said.

Azevedo and Curtis encouraged the board to start seriously prioritizing and weighing options to save the district money.

"The longer you wait, the bigger the cuts you have to make. If you make them now, the savings compound. If you wait, the losses compound," Curtis said. "We need to make decisions soon."