The Community Budget Advisory Committee to the Culver City Unified School Board met last evening for the third time this year to discuss and prioritize recommendations to the Board to achieve a $3.5 million reduction in School District expenses.
Over the course of weeks, recommendations have been put forth for consideration. Beginning with the remnants of the last round of cuts a few years ago, the District has searched internally and externally for ideas and suggestions. Virtually any idea was put forth for CBAC to discuss, and the members of CBAC (parents, site representatives, citizens, union and administration representatives) added their own suggestions.
At its last meeting, CBAC reviewed, in detail, all the recommendations on the table at that time.
A vote was then taken to prioritize, ranging from high priority to cut (a “1” vote), to a low priority to cut (a “3” vote). Each vote was weighted by the number of voters to create a prioritization list to recommend to the School Board.
Last evening’s agenda was focused on those items brought forward subsequent to the last CBAC meeting.
A position by position review of all District jobs was conducted to determine if any could be reduced in months or hours and still manage to do the work of the District.
The majority of School District employees are teachers who are compensated for about 10 months of work. A smaller but significant number of District employees are compensated for 11 or 12 months of work.
CBAC’s review of these positions revealed how lean and efficiently the School District appears to run with little evident fat or fluff within the budget.
Trying to be Creative
Ultimately, reduced hours were recommended for two positions, and 12 new items were added to the original list of 58.
Many parents and community members will take note that CBAC voted to pull elimination of the music program completely from the list.
Also discussed was the concept of a 1% across-the-table cut for all programs and salaries.
Good on paper, but the result of such a cut in salaries for District employees would have significant and severe detrimental impact on each person’s individual retirement program, based on state laws.
Adaptation Can Be Difficult
What works in private industry does not always translate well into the Byzantine structure of school budgets and restrictions.
Lastly, CBAC discussed a $1.2 million, one- time refund from Workers Compensation funds.
Because this is a one-time refund, the money cannot be used for any sustaining programs, or salaries. CBAC voted to recommend the District to supplement the shortfall in the necessary $3.5 million in cuts, if any.
The committee advised placing the balance in a reserve account, whose use would be determined as the future budget picture becomes clearer.
Next Step: The School Board
CBAC’s recommendations will be presented to the School Board at next Tuesday’s 7 o’clock meeting.
Since these recommendations are unlikely to be adopted in their entirety it is not likely the full amount of reductions will be addressed.
CBAC will continue to seek out and review all options through the coming weeks and months. In addition to money-saving suggestions, the committee is interested in ideas that would create new revenue.
Mr. Elmont is a member of the Community Budget Advisory Committee.
