Gary Moskowitz
The Glendale Unified School District may get a break when making
budget cuts this year, but more than $5 million in expected cuts to
this year's budget could be pushed over to the 2003-04 school year.
The school board will review what they know so far about mid-year
budget-reduction proposals from the legislature at Tuesday's board
meeting.
District officials expected to learn more about mid-year
budget-reduction proposals today or Tuesday, said Steve Hodgson,
chief business and financial officer for the district.
"It would appear the legislature is considering current year
reductions at a lesser amount than the governor proposed, but at this
point we just don't know," Hodgson said. "But it may compound the
problem for 2003-04. A lot depends on what kind of flexibility we get
with class-size reduction."
Glendale Unified has joined other districts in the state that
participate in a class-size reduction program in asking for a
district-wide average of 20 students per class instead of individual
class-size limits of 20. Districts receive financial penalties when
individual class sizes go over 20, so many classes are kept at 18
students to allow for students who may enroll in the class late, said
Deputy Superintendent Joann Merrick.
"If we were given that kind of flexibility, it could amount to
more than $1 million in savings for the district," Merrick said.
The board will also have to discuss the possibility of issuing
job-status notifications by a March 15 deadline.
If the district intends to lay off any classified employees, they
are required by law to issue those notices by March 15, Hodgson said.
Brown informed the community at a budget briefing session last
week there could be hundreds of layoffs if the governor's budget
proposal goes through.
