School board to adopt a ‘best guess’ budget

With the state budget far from settled, the Windsor School Board
will make its best “educated guess” when it votes on its 2003-2004
budget on Tuesday, June 24 at 6 p.m. at the Windsor Council
Chambers.
“It’s strange that school districts are required to adopt their
budget before the state adopts theirs,” said Wade Roach, the
Director of Business Services for the Windsor Unified School
District. Without a state budget, the district and the board are
required to pass a budget by July 1 based on the best information
available.
At the moment, the best information available calls for $1.5
million in budget cuts. These cuts include a $869,900 reduction in
district classified staff, which includes custodians, office staff,
and classroom aides, among others. In an attempt to keep the cuts
out of the classroom as much as possible, the board decided to
reduce certificated staff by only $229,980, saving its teachers
from layoff notices.
These cuts will be put in place next week, but nothing will be
declared final until the state releases its budget and the district
learns exactly how much money it can expect for the upcoming fiscal
year. “It’s our first best guess at what the 2003-2004 budget will
be like,” said WUSD Superintendent Robert Carter. “We can modify it
as needed.”
“In any given fiscal year, the board has to examine the budget
many times and make decisions based on circumstances that occur,”
Roach said. “However, in this current fiscal year, the budget will
have to become an ever more fluid document, with the need for the
board and the community to be intimately involved with its
evolution.”
By addressing the budget at its June 24 meeting, the board is
allowing itself some leeway if unforeseen issues arise. If the new
budget is not passed, the board will use the following week and its
July 1 meeting to make any final changes.
“That’s why we put in the extra board meeting,” Carter said. “If
there are any questions or any issues the board needs addressed, it
will give us another board meeting to do that.”