Superintendent Ramon Cortines will today present budget recommendations that include laying off nearly 8,400 employees and cutting valued programs, it's being reported.
With his budget update, Cortines will tell the Los Angeles Unified board that there is already a $140 million deficit for the current school year. He'll try to patch that up by shifting funds from categorical programs, according to an LAUSD memo to board members. (It's at the end of the meeting materials -- a big download.)
The potential closure of small campuses, including Sellery Special Education Center in Gardena will be discussed as part of Cortines' budget proposals today. A decision on that will be made next week, district officials said.
(To watch the meeting, which begins at 1 p.m., go here.)
Cortines' budget recommendations will include giving schools more freedom to use their own funding as campus administrators see fit. Making preliminary budget decision so early in the year means the district is "entering new waters," Cortines wrote. He wants decisions made early so that schools can plan to "buy back" eliminated jobs with freed-up funding.
He also notes: "[L]et me be clear, we will not be receiving enough federal stimulus funding to offset the reductions that we are facing from the State and there will be reductions in personnel at our schools."
In today's papers, the Daily News writer Connie Llanos reports that class sizes could increase under the plans -- up to 42 students per instructor in some high school classes.
The Los Angeles Times' Howard Blume writes that a dropout prevention program is on the chopping block. He writes that the budget crisis has given Cortines a an opportunity to make some reforms though a chance to "trim or gut some of the central bureaucracy."
"I'm dealing with a budget deficit over three years and five years. Not everybody will be saved, and," Cortines said, "everybody shouldn't be saved."
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