CVUSD eyes future cuts for budget
Author: Neil Nisperos , Staff Writer '
CHINO - The Chino Valley Unified school board on Thursday approved an interim budget that puts it in the black for the current and following school years, but projects a shortfall by the beginning of the 2012-13 school year.
The district projects a $2.3 million shortfall by then, which may grow to as much as $19 million in the 2013-14 school year.
"I know that the board has made a lot of difficult decisions that have affected people's livelihoods by making tough decisions to bring our budget back in line," said Sandra Chen, the district's assistant superintendent of business services.
"But we do have a shortfall in 2012-13. We all need to take a deep breath and gear back up again to identifying more budget reductions that we will have to put in place to address not only the 2012-13 deficit, but the 2013-14 deficit, which we are now projecting to be a $19 million deficit based on what we know today."
In recent months, the school board through drastic program and staffing cuts reduced its nearly $30 million three-year deficit to the $2.3 million that still must be reduced.
"We have come a long way," said board member Fred Youngblood. "We have not made it to the finish line, but we made it an awfully long way. Those final numbers are completely different now than they were in the beginning and every time we look at it, they're going down."
Chen said the district staff will bring a third interim three-year budget for the board to approve on May 19, and a final three-year district budget to the board on June 30.
Chen said that if the budget isn't balanced by the third interim, Chino Valley officials may have to look for more aggressive ways to cut remaining costs.
In addition to approving a the interim budget report Thursday, the district, with board president James Na absent, also approved a resolution in support of Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal for a tax extension measure. Brown wants the Legislature to call a special election in June to give voters an opportunity to continue increases in the income, sales and vehicle taxes for five years.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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