At the Windsor Unified School District Board of Trustees budget workshop on June 2 the board approved some cuts, but the most painful decisions were put off for a last-minute decision to allow the board more time to gather information.
The meeting was the third in a series of workshops convened by the board to try to prepare for the enormous budget shortfall anticipated should the governor’s proposed 10% cut to school funding move forward.
One challenging truth of school budgeting, regardless of the year, is that districts are required to turn in their yearly budgets before the state has finalized its budget for the year. Therefore, districts are trying to make decisions about budgeting without exactly knowing what funding will be available.
The governor releases a preliminary budget, which helps guide their conversations, but it isn’t finalized until later. Because of this, districts are allowed a 45-day window to make revisions to their budget based on the state’s final numbers. In an average year, this process tends to be tricky but the changes relatively small. This year, all bets are off.
The governor’s proposals have been met with anger and concern, but the impacts of COVID-19 shutdowns to the state’s coffers can’t be denied. Therefore, this year more than any in recent memory, budget finalization is proving incredibly difficult, in no small part because of the size and scope of cuts being considered.
On top of those challenges, the districts are also grappling with what schools will look like in the fall, and what monies will be necessary to make them happen. Additional levels of cleaning (including possible increased janitorial staffing), providing personal protective equipment (PPE) for teachers, staff and potentially students, as well as managing social distancing on campuses are all potential impacts to both function and cost of schools.
In addition, districts are waiting to hear with the summer layoff window will be allowed to open by the state. Normally, all layoffs notices and decisions for certificated (teaching) staff are completed by May, but in the case of a 2% or greater drop in LCFF funding, an additional window for layoffs is triggered. However, the state can also disallow this triggering, and has done so in the past.
Chief Business Officer Lois Standring was prepared to present numbers and ideas, but she wanted it made clear that the information is a best guess, based on current information.
“This is our landmark, our starting place, with what we know right now,” she said.
She presented three scenarios based on those landmarks. There was one common item for each scenario, cuts that the board had already been considering for the purpose of stopping deficit spending, prior to the COVID-19 impacts being known. Those cuts total $1.97 million the first year, $1.276 million the second year and $776,000 the third year. In each scenario there is also $750,000 set aside in expenditures for reopening school costs. Finally, in the first year there are additional monies available in the form of $450,000 in carryover funds they are being allowed to utilize in the general fund, $276,000 from the government’s CARES program, and $500,000 from the Lytton Tribe. The last is half of a $1 million donation made by the tribe some time ago, which the district has been saving. The second half of the donation will be applied in the second year.
The first scenario featured those “first section” cuts, furlough days for all staff including administration ($835,367), “second section” reductions ($1.2 million year one, $1.66 million year two and year three) and certificated reductions should the summer layoff window be open ($500,000). Scenario one features a positive ending fund balance at the end of the 2022-23 school year of $2.2 million, which is within the needed amount of reserves as required by law.
Scenario two has the same “first section” cuts, and features the sale of the Windsor Creek facility in year two for $4.7 million (considered a fire sale price), and the same furlough days as scenario one. This scenario has a positive ending fund balance of $836,150, which is not enough to cover the state-mandated 3% reserves.
Scenario three has the “first section” cuts, and a 10% reduction in pay for all staff, in every position in the district ($2.82 million savings annually). The ending fund balance is $2 million, just slightly less than the necessary reserve.
These ending fund balances are in contrast to the current budget, if no cuts are made, which shows a negative balance of $2.4 million in 2021-22 and $9.6 million in 2022-23.
When discussing the scenarios, there was not a lot of interest in selling Windsor Creek, in part because they don’t wish to lose value and in part because the addition of one-time money is not a long-term budget fix. Board members tried to query the union representatives and school principals on the Zoom call as to whether there would be a preference among their membership for furlough days and job cuts/losses or the 10% across the board salary cut, but in general they all declined to make any commitments, instead saying they would need to discuss with their memberships and/or take a vote.
The issue of timing versus input raised its head throughout the proceedings, because while the board wants to be able to work with unions and employees and include their input, those decisions must be made in time for Standring to complete her budget for the board to vote on during the June 16 meeting, so it can be filed with the Sonoma County Office of Education by June 30.
The board then went through potentially cuts/additions line-by-line for discussion or approval.
Ultimately the “first section” cuts and the one-time funding uses were approved (see sidebar for items and figures). They declined to make final decisions on additional cuts and will be holding yet one more budget workshop on June 9.
