Anticipated reductions to district income include:

No Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA).

A 2.4% reduction of the 07-08 base income of the district

A 6.5% across-the-board reduction to state “categorical” program income – funds for specially targeted programs, such as special education and programs for English language learners. 

These reductions add up to a minimum of over $1 million in general fund income and over $1 million in categorical fund income.  At the same time the district is seeing reductions in income it must also account for salary increases for employees, ever-rising costs for Special Education and other under funded programs, increasing costs of goods and services, and increasing costs of health insurance premiums. 

The district’s board and administrators recently took action to reduce the 2008-09 budget by $1.1million from the unrestricted general fund.  Principals are currently working to make school-based reductions based on slashed categorical funding, and those cuts should total $1-1.5 million across the district, for a total of $2 to $2.5 million in cuts from the district’s $53 million budget.

The cuts made thus far will impact school sites directly in a variety of ways:

Office staffing/library services reduction will decrease levels of service

Custodial staffing reductions will affect night cleaning routines

Reductions will be made in funding for everything the sites purchase and conferences attendance

Schools will lose one before school/recess/lunch time yard duty supervisor per site

Class size in Kindergarten at five sites will increase

The cuts will impact district level expenditures in similar ways:

One clerical position in the Instructional Services Department will be eliminated

Night cleaning will be reduced

Certain overtime and substitute service will be eliminated

Expenditures for materials, supplies, and conferences will be reduced

Management/confidential personnel health benefit costs will be capped

Expenditure reductions will be made in areas that may not be sustainable, given an emergency or unforeseen circumstance (eg., substitute costs, legal fees, overtime)

In preparation for next year all managers in the district have been asked to immediately curtail spending from both categorical and general funds sources, reduce or eliminate overtime, and reduce office and custodial substitute use.  These actions allow the district to build cash in its reserve for next year and beyond. 

With these cuts the district will meet the State’s statutory required reserve (3%) in the next three years. 

Dr. Marc Winger, superintendent of Newhall School District, recently summarized the budget problems.  “These actions are the unfortunate result of a worsening economic picture in California.  All too often policy decisions – or the lack of hard choices – that are made at the state level fall on the shoulders of children and the dedicated people who work with them.”

“We are working with other California districts to influence the Legislature and Governor on the issue of school funding in light of the State’s crisis.  We don’t want to implement these cuts to services for our students and we want the Legislature to find another solution.”

“We have been here before and we have always continued to deliver an excellent education for our students.  I hope the Newhall School District community joins me in concentrating on what we can do in this crisis, not on what we cannot do.” 

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