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Politics & Government

School District Prepares For An Uncertain Budget

The 2011-2012 school year will move forward with no drastic budget cuts, yet

The Fairfield-Suisun School District is preparing to move into yet another school year of funding uncertainty due to California’s budget. As of now there is a bit of good news, however, that will allow the district to plan similarly to the last school year.

“The budget that they adopted is a flat funding, so it’s considerably different than what were planning on,” said Kelly Morgan, assistant superintendent of business services.

Flat funding means the district will not receive an increase of funding, but they will not have a decrease either. The district was originally planning for a decrease of about $350 per student in the district. With 20,000 students in the district, that would have meant a cut of approximately $7 million. Still, the budget comes with a bit of a tricky provision.

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“There’s a provision in the budget that if their revenue projections won’t hold, that we’ll get mid-year cuts, but we are not allowed to reserve money for mid-year cuts,” said Morgan.

Districts across the state faced massive cuts eariler this year when an attempt by Jerry Brown to convince lawmakers to bring tax extensions to a November ballot failed. Morgan said the current budget is based on pretty “rosy revenue projections.”

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Though state money cannot be saved up for rainy days, the district has some $4 million in federal money they are planning to use should mid-year cuts occur. The district may know as soon as January or February if the cuts will take place.

“I think we’re really fortunate that we hung on to that money, a lot of districts spent it last year,” said Morgan. “And the only reason that we can do that is that the state can’t dictate to us how we use our federal funds.”

Morgan said the maximum potential mid-year cut would be as much as $5.2 million. Though it exceeds the amount the district has saved for the school year, she is confident the district will be able to manage, should the cuts go through.

Morgan said though the district is prepared for the worst, at this point she has no idea what will happen.

“I would imagine there would be some reductions, but it depends on how well the economy springs back, if at all,” she said.  “All the indication so far is that this is a very, very slow recovery, but it’s just too difficult to tell.”

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