School Board Adopts $123.8M budget

The Long Beach Board of Education unanimously adopted a $123.8 million budget for 2013-2014, but not before some trustees recommended retaining certain staff factored into attrition.  

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Superintendent David Weiss and Michael DeVito, the district’s chief operating officer, presented the third version of the proposed budget during Tuesday's meeting at the Middle School. The final draft represents a 1.3 percent increase over the current budget and calls for a $93.2 million tax levy, the total amount of money raised by property taxes, which is a 1 percent hike, or an additional $925,000, above the existing spending plan.

Weiss said the district has to have a sustainable budget that will allow the maximum education for children in a manner that the community can support. “In that spirit I think it’s very important the people look both at themselves and the city and the schools as a whole as they think about comments or suggestions that they’re going to make,” said Weiss, who noted that there are people who will lose their jobs.

Among the proposed personnel cuts were bus matrons for pre-k students and one of four teachers-in-charge in the district. These cuts were protest the most by parents, as well as the staff members themselves, who addressed the board, saying that they provided necessary safety and emotional support for students. Others criticized the cuts more from a financial perspective.

Bill Snow, president of the Long Beach Schools Employees Association, called the district out for making cuts to some of the lowest-paid employees. In reply to President Roy Lester calling the budget a “balancing act,” Snow said, “It seems like the Long Beach Schools Employee Association is on the bottom of the scale, and I don’t think that’s fair.”

Before voting to adopting the budget, the trustees decided to retain the bus matrons, at a cost of $90,000, saying that the district could compensate by adjusting certain line items in the budget to maintain the $123.8 million figure.

“We can find money somewhere during the year to make up for that,” said Dr. Dennis Ryan when he urged his fellow trustees to retain the bus matrons.

In addition to urging the board to keep the teacher-in-charge, Trustee Darlene Tangney and President Roy Lester called for retaining the staff slated for cuts at the Nike alternative high school.

The final draft of the budget is larger than the original draft, in part due to a change of about $175,6000 in interest-related costs to the debt service that the district owes on a $98 million bond for a district-wide preservation plan to rebuild schools and facilities that the community voted to approve in 2009.

Part of the preservation plan includes constructing a sports complex at the high school. Several residents, including Darlene Haut, president of the Lido Homeowners Civic Association, urged the district to halt and rethink that project in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, citing environmental and financial concerns. But Tangney and Trustee Patrick Gallagher both indicated that they were going to uphold the community’s vote on the project.

While the budget’s earlier drafts called for a zero percent increase in operating expenditures, a proposal made and approved the previous two years, officials increased that figure to $500,000 in the final draft. The district will also retain two deans at the high school and teaching assistants that were slated for cuts in earlier drafts, DeVito said.  

Ryan said that most of the people who attend school board meetings want to keep the proposed cuts or add to the budget.

“And I can understand that but I represent a number of constituents who cannot come to meetings and I feel a responsibility to draw the line somewhere,” said Ryan, who believes the budget should have contained more administrative cuts. “Not ultimately or totally pleased with the budget, I think it represents a very fair compromise in terms of considering all the constituencies and all the children.”

Trustee Stewart Mininsky was absent at Tuesday’s meeting. The board will hold a final budget hearing May 14 and the community vote is May 21.

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