Yuba County districts ‘holding their own' with Prop. 30

Yuba County districts "are holding their own" after schools were saved from $6 million worth of cuts, which would have likely been made to personnel, officials said.

Personnel is every district's largest expense, but the impact of Proposition 30 leaves teachers and staff safe from budget cuts, said Scotia Sanchez, superintendent of Yuba County schools.

However, the law doesn't give schools back any of the funding they have lost during the past five years.

"All the schools are doing the best they can with 22 percent less," Sanchez said, referring to the amount of cuts county schools have received since 2007.

Districts have received sizable cuts in their revenue-limit funding, which is the amount of money a district receives from the state per student. The revenue limit uses a formula based on average daily attendance.

In California, Sanchez said the state gives schools an average of $6,748 per student for unified districts and $6,494 for elementary students. But because of the 22 percent state cut, unified districts in Yuba County are only getting about $5,263 per student and elementary schools are getting $5,065.

The cuts are considerable, even after the passage of Proposition 30, said Mark Allgire, assistant superintendent of business services at Marysville Joint Unified School District, at last month's board meeting.

"Of course, we are still suffering from significant loss of funding," he said. "The revenue limit deficit factor alone causes a loss of revenue over $13 million a year."

Every district in Yuba County was able to maintain "positive" budget status for the current and two subsequent fiscal years, except for Wheatland Union High School District. Wheatland High self-reported itself as "qualified" last year because it appeared it would be behind its budget projections, said Superintendent and Principal Vic Ramos.

The school should be coming out of "qualified" status by the end of this fiscal year, he said.

The school's interim budget is improving for different reasons.

One reason is because the school has laid off several full-time equivalent staff members in the last few years. Another is the passing of Proposition 30.

Ramos said the district isn't planning on making staff cuts.

— Griffin Rogers