Schools could lose $6 million

Mary A. Castillo

Supt. Theresa Daem has seen a lot of state budget proposals come

and go, but the 2003-04 spending plan announced by Gov. Gray Davis

earlier this month shook her to the core.

“It would wipe out every supplemental program we have today,” she

said. “We would be a bare-bones organization.”

The governor’s program calls for the state to redirect $126.2

million of the estimated $160 million of excess property tax

collected by basic aid districts and eliminate the $120 state aid

add-on to the revenue limit.

These cuts would reduce the 2003-04 Laguna Beach Unified School

District from an estimated $23,732,200 to $17,696,744. Daem was

adamant that, although this proposal would cut 25% of the district’s

budget, the district would preserve teachers’ jobs, principals,

secretaries and the janitorial staff at each school. However, class

sizes could swell, and everything else, such as physical education,

music, computer labs, libraries, foreign language and after-school

programs, would be compromised or eliminated.

As soon as the proposed cuts were announced, Daem initiated a

letter-writing campaign with the Laguna Beach PTA Council, teachers,

principals, staff and the community.

“They’ve been wonderful,” she said. “As a community we have to be

relentless until [the governor and the legislature] understand.”

She felt that the state slashed funding to basic aid districts

because decision-makers were simply looking at dollars and cents.

What they failed to understand, in her estimation, is that when

revenue from property taxes are reduced, basic aid districts lose

their primary source of funding.

Basic aid districts receive $120 per student in revenue limit

funding from the state general funds, whereas the average California

school district receives about $2,500 per student in state general

fund tax.

“During the fire in 1993, as a basic aid district, we lost revenue

resulting from the destruction of homes in Laguna Beach,” local

parent Bill Steel said. “We didn’t get help from the state. We had to

absorb the loss.”

At the school board meeting Tuesday, Dawn Mirone asked on behalf

of the district’s teachers to participate in discussions in

generating greater efficiency and helping support the district.

The board members thanked her, but they still indicated that they

have an uphill battle ahead.

“Given the gravity of the state’s situation, there are no

guarantees how it will come out,” board member Robert Whalen said.

“We need to get something from the governor that says he’ll remove

the proposal from the table,” Daem said.

She sent out a community-wide e-mail Wednesday asking everyone

from real estate agents to parents to write state leaders.

The budget is due in to the governor on June 15. He must sign or

veto it before July 1.

* MARY A. CASTILLO covers education, public safety and City Hall.

She can be reached at mary.castillo@latimes.com.