(See pdf below)
When the School Board convenes a special session, uncolorfully known as a budget workshop, this evening at 6 in the Board Room, it will mark the coming-out party for Mike Reynolds.
One month ago this morning, Mr. Reynolds arrived from Temecula – a separate story, to be related later this week – as the new Assistant Superintendent for Business Services.
For the curious, the Los Angeles native’s congenial, open-faced style probably will be monitored as closely as his words in the slightly-more-casual-than-usual setting where the fallout from the Prop. 30 victory will headline the agenda.
In what financial condition did you find the School District?
“The district has been extremely prudent in setting aside reserves because nobody knew if Prop. 30 was going to pass. And so they have built up a reserve. With the state giving less and less money to school districts, they have built up the reserve so they could continue to offer a quality educational program.
“The state economy is directly related to what we get as a school district. It’s not as if the state just says it is going to give less. As the state economy has gone through the Great Recession, districts have been less and less funded. The state says, ‘We owe you (in Average Daily Attendance) $100 per kid. But we only are going to give you $76. The next year we are going to give you $72.’
“It has been brutal, and this has been going on for four, five years. As the district’s revenues fell, they did the best they could to maintain the quality programs and level of service to Culver City.”
Was the passage of Prop. 30 as critical to the schools as Gov. Brown claimed?
“It was to this district, to every district. We were running a $5 million deficit. Let’s say we had $10 million or $12 million in reserve. In 25 months, you are going to be out of money.
“Then you would have to implement layoffs, unfortunately. Basically, a layoff means you are dramatically reducing the level of your service to your community. It is out of your hands.”
Was Prop. 30 preferable to Molly Munger’s rival Prop. 38?
“We will never really know since 38 didn’t pass. Prop. 38 was very interesting because it only dealt with K-12. Prop. 30 is supposed to protect some of our funding, but it is not exclusive for school districts.
“This is where we are right now. The Legislative Analyst for the state thinks the state is going to be about $1.9 billion short this year, compared to $15 billion, $16 billion in prior years. She, the Legislative Analyst, doesn’t think that is going to come out of schools.
“If the state economy had continued to plummet, they would have had to come up with the money, somewhere. It is hard to imagine a scenario where billions and billions had to come out, but schools would not be affected. The $6 billion (in revenue) Prop. 30 represented, that would be coming our way. But how about the rest of the money that funds K-12 education?”
How much is to accrue to Culver City as a result of Prop. 30?
“We had about a $5.5 million deficit in the budget. Because of Prop. 30, the deficit is down to about $2.2 million. It got rid of about three/fifths of our ongoing deficit. That means the reserves, instead of being only enough to cover us for two years, we are looking at enough to keep us financially stable for four years, possibly five.”
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