East Contra Costa school district rescinds $1.1 million in planned cuts

BRENTWOOD -- Liberty Union High School District is on track to start the new fiscal year with a budget that's not only balanced but mostly intact.

Trustees on Wednesday received an overview of the $54 million spending plan for 2011-12, which doesn't include most of the $1.5 million in spending cuts that the district had been expecting to make three months ago.

The school board is scheduled to adopt the final budget at its June 22 meeting after a public hearing.

In March, Liberty Union had drawn up a list of ways to reduce expenses by an estimated $1.5 million, which included layoffs and three furlough days for all employees as well as eliminating stipends for some teachers and coaches.

Last month, however, Gov. Jerry Brown revised his budget proposal to include more education funding, so trustees rescinded $1.1 million of the district's proposed spending cuts, including the furloughs.

Nearly all the reductions it still plans to make involve personnel changes.

Liberty Union expects to save roughly $120,000 by replacing the teachers and classified employees who are retiring with new ones who are lower on the pay scale.

Independence High School employees who meet with students to go over their homework will see their hours cut, and two campus security officers who patrol the district at night and on the weekends will be gone as of July 1.

Even so, the picture is considerably brighter than it was in March.

balanced budget is always good -- I'm happy to have it," said business manager Rick Miller, noting that some school districts expect to be deficit spending in the coming fiscal year.

Next year's spending plan still represents a cut of $1.4 million from the current budget.

Although Liberty Union won't be making all the cuts it originally thought it might, the budget should be about $10 million larger than it is, Miller said.

That's because the district isn't receiving what it's entitled to, according to Proposition 98's funding formula, which will translate into a loss of $1,478 per student in 2011-12 alone, he said.

Miller said this will be the fourth consecutive year that the state has shortchanged Liberty Union on attendance-based revenue.