Possible School Budget Cuts Outlined
• SMMUSD Officials Say that $2.5
Million May Have to Be Cut
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School
District Board of Education is meeting this week on Wednesday
night after The News goes to press to decide how to make cuts
to the school budget.
Members had been briefed at a previous
board meeting about the need to trim $2.5 million dollars and
talked briefly about how to go about it.
Assistant Superintendent Mike Matthews, who
is director of human resources, had given the staff report at a
previous meeting and had laid out a series of proposed cuts
involving teaching and administrative positions.
Matthews told the Malibu Surfside News on
Tuesday that there are about 45 positions that will be
addressed on Wednesday. He said most personnel cuts will be
dealt with by attrition—not replacing staff who are
retiring, resigning or were temporay hires.
A mandatory timeline requires the board to
take care of those certificated staff no later than Wednesday,
according to Matthews. “Some of it is about
personnel, so the public really won’t be hearing about
all of it,” he added.
Once the dust settles, and it becomes clear
how much money those staff reductions lower the budget, the
board will again look at the issue at its meeting on March 13,
and then again on April 3. “If we are going to reduce the
budget by $1 to $1.5 million, all the work has to be
done,” he added.
Matthews had talked about eliminating seven
elementary school teaching positions and 18 other jobs at
secondary schools. The reductions could amount to $1.25 million
and other cuts would be necessary to meet the $2.5 million
benchmark.
Declining enrollment is cited as the
biggest reason for the need to cut the budget.
The district receives much of its funding
from the state, which bases its funding on how many students
the district serves. The board recently took other measures,
including reducing the restrictions on interdistrict
permits in an effort to beef up student enrollment.
