‘Final’ school budget may still change

Deirdre Newman

Calling the Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s final budget

“final” is like calling a baseball game over with two outs in the

bottom of the ninth.

That’s the sentiment Assistant Supt. of Business Services Paul

Reed expressed Tuesday night before the district’s trustees

unanimously passed a “final” budget to comply with state law.

The temporary quality of the final budget results from the state

not passing its own budget yet because $24 billion is still

unresolved, raising the specter of significant cuts in education.

“We’ve gotten no direction from the state,” Reed lamented. “The

longer it takes, the more concerned I get, because the more desperate

they get in Sacramento the worse it could be for education.”

The district is required to adopt a final budget by Sept. 8.

Using his financial acumen and a crystal ball Reed jokingly said

he received from his predecessor, Mike Fine, Reed crafted the budget

based on conservative assumptions. The challenge was exacerbated by

another uncertainty -- the district will not know the full extent of

the property tax income it will receive from the county until

November.

For the 2002-03 school year, the total projected income is $174.7

million and total projected expenses is $167.2 million, including

$64.4 million for teacher salaries.

Another part of the budget that is not quite as it seems is the

deficit of $7.3 million, which is obtained by comparing this year’s

ending balance of $7.5 million to the beginning balance of $14.8

million, Reed said. He does not consider it to be deficit spending,

though, because the money is being spent from program and site

reserves, and will go toward one-time expenditures.

The end result is still an increase in the “true reserve” from 3%

to 4%, Reed said.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.