Las Lomitas School District aims to cover its bets in uncertain times Las Lomitas School District aims to cover its bets in uncertain times (March 02, 2005)

** Reserves are increasingly important, says new board president.

By David Boyce

Almanac Staff Writer

Preparing for more uncertainty in state education spending will be a major priority for the Las Lomitas Elementary School District in 2005.

So said Leslie Airola-Murveit, the district's new school board president, in a recent interview with the Almanac about the board's top concerns for 2005.

Over and above the ongoing mission to maintain and enhance education quality, the board will pay close attention to the governor's education budget for 2005-06, and take steps to reorganize and increase the district's financial reserves.

This is the third year of Ms. Airola-Murveit's four-year term on the board. A resident of Portola Valley, she is an attorney, a mediator and a former legal adviser for the public in San Mateo County on the use of Small Claims Court.

The Las Lomitas district serves students from parts of Menlo Park, Atherton and unincorporated San Mateo County. Las Lomitas School in Atherton has 486 K-3 students enrolled; La Entrada School in Menlo Park has 555 students in grades 4 through 8.

The Ravenswood City School District in East Palo Alto sends about 90 students, who attend through the Tinsley Transfer desegregation program.
Rising revenues

The Las Lomitas district should have few major worries about near-term local funding.

For 2004-05, the San Mateo County Controller's Office is projecting an 8.7 percent increase -- $590,000 -- in property tax revenues for the district. In the previous fiscal year, those revenues rose 7.5 percent.

A district budget summary shows total revenues of $12.5 million for 2004-05 and expenses of $12.8 million, with about $1.7 million in reserve.

All school districts may be facing financial binds of varying severity. In Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's January budget message, he made several proposals affecting the schools, including increasing a school district's contribution to its teachers' retirement funds by 2 percent, and reducing the state's contribution by the same amount.

Were this proposal to become law, the obligation for the Las Lomitas district -- which employs 70 fulltime teachers -- would be $130,000, said De Modderman, the district's business manager.

Where would the money come from? The governor would give school districts the authority to recoup the expense by deducting it from teachers' salaries. That would be one option, said Ms. Airola-Murveit. "I don't think we'd like to do that," she said. "We try to give them raises each year."

Other possible sources include school program funds and the $1.7 million reserve, down from $1.95 million in the previous fiscal year. The board may decide to divert part of the reserves to a separate fund for dealing with changes in state law that impact funding, said Ms. Airola-Murveit.

Raising the reserve level is an important goal, she said. District budget projections show it steadily decreasing over the next three fiscal years.
Other changes ahead

With kindergarten classes regularly outnumbering eighth-grade classes, enrollment -- now at 1,041 -- may grow to 1,200 over the next five years, according to district projections.

If so, the district will need two new teachers and an assistant principal for Las Lomitas School, said Ms. Airola-Murveit. "Both the staff and the administration feel that it would be important to have an assistant principal to help with the staff and interactions with parents," she said.

The news about the governor's funding proposals came in the midst of the district's effort to restore electives, including music classes, that were cut two years ago. "We're hoping to get the electives back to where they were," said Ms. Airola-Murveit.

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