CUSD lays out $2.5 million in school budget cuts

The Cabrillo Unified School District will cut the high school’s counselors and librarian, all athletics funding, and all class-size reduction if the proposed parcel tax does not pass.

The CUSD board voted to accept superintendent Rob Gaskill’s proposed cuts from the district’s budget, designed close the district’s forecast budget deficit for 2010-11 school year, at an increasingly emotional meeting in the Cunha Intermediate School library.

The district forecasts a $2.5 million budget shortfall if its proposed five-year $150/year parcel tax does not pass, and $1.0 million if the tax passes. Superintendent Gaskill also noted that the cuts were reduced by a one-time federal stimulus payment of $545,000 and that this money will have to be made up in the 2011-12 school year.

Superintendent Gaskill said that his proposed cuts were informed by his past experience as a high school principal during budget cuts in 1992, and that his priorities were protecting the classroom and maintaining safety.  All cuts in the first $1 million would come from administration. The next $1.5 million would cut the high school’s counselors, librarians, athletics funding, and class-size reduction.

Some cuts that were on an earlier list were not on the final version: closing Kings Mountain School, eliminating literacy coaches in the elementary schools, and eliminating all regular ed busing.

Many parents and teachers came to speak in favor of athletic programs, counseling, and the high school librarian—all of which will be cut if the parcel tax fails, but which will be saved if the tax passes. Board president Dwight Wilson reminded the speakers that they might want to work to pass the parcel tax.

In the list of proposed cuts, those items at the top of the list would be cut first. Those at the bottom of the list would be cut last and would be reinstated first if additional money or savings are found. In other words, the district’s highest priority items are at the bottom of the list.

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