The next school year could see larger class sizes, fewer materials and less prep time for teachers, as the Menlo Park City School District prepares to make $1.1 million in budget cuts.
Even with cutting more than $1 million in spending, the district may still have to dip into its reserves — by as much as $785,000 — in the next school year, according to Superintendent Ken Ranella. He is estimating that the district could face as much as a $1.5 million deficit in the 2009-2010 school year.
The school board discussed Mr. Ranella’s strategy for trimming the budget at the Feb. 17 board meeting. The board gave input on his plans, but did not take formal action because of the unknown impact of the state budget crisis.
“I’m not going to ask you for a vote because this is probably going to be moot tomorrow,” Mr. Ranella said dryly.
Dwindling property tax revenues, increasing numbers of students, uncertainty over state budget cuts, and county investment pool losses are making for a grimmer-than-usual financial outlook for the K-8 school district that encompasses much of Menlo Park and Atherton.
Contributions to the school foundation, which typically donates money amounting to 8 percent of the district’s annual budget, are running about 20 percent below last year’s level.
“We’re going to weather this with minimal loss, compared with other (school) districts, but there is a loss,” said board member Laura Rich.
Mr. Ranella said he did not plan to lay off teachers, but that he wouldn’t hire new teachers to keep class sizes at their current levels. Instead, the average class size would go up to 26 students in grades 4-8, thanks to increased enrollment.
Class-size reduction grants from the state make it economically infeasible to boost class sizes in the primary grades, so those will remain at 20 children per class, according to Mr. Ranella.
Other cutbacks include reducing overtime hours for custodians and eliminating the assistant principal position at Laurel School, a library assistant at Hillview Middle School, the district’s assistant school nurse and a data secretary. Purchases of furniture and technology equipment will be delayed, and teachers currently doing non-instructional work will likely be reassigned to teach in classrooms.
Budget cuts will also postpone the planned introduction of Spanish language lessons for primary grade students that had been set to start in the fall.
School construction projects aren’t affected by the planned budget cuts. Dedicated bond money can only be used for the construction of school facilities, and can’t be used for other educational purposes.
