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January 2003 News Archive

Tuesday, January 28, 2003

Public Meetings About Possible Budget Reductions

Due to major cuts in the state’s education budget, we will need to make significant cuts in the budgets of the Santa Barbara Elementary and High School Districts. In the weeks ahead, our Districts’ Board of Education will meet to listen to the public, discuss, and decide on budget reductions for school years 2002-2003 and 2003-2004.

Tuesday, February 4

Tuesday, February 11

Tuesday, February 25

Tuesday, March 11

Martes 28 de enero

Reuniones públicas para discutir posibles cambios en el presupuesto

Debido a recortes importantes en el presupuesto estatal de educación, vamos a tener que hacer unos recortes importantes en los presupuestos de los distritos escolares de primaria y de secundaria de Santa Bárbara. En las próximas semanas, nuestro Consejo de Educación del Distrito se reunirá y escuchará las opiniones del público, discutirá y tomará decisiones sobre las reducciones de los presupuestos para los años escolares 2002-03 y 2003-04. Por favor, vengan a participar en este diálogo tan importante.

Martes 4 de febrero

Martes 11 de febrero

Martes 25 de febrero

Martes 11 de marzo

Friday, January 10, 2003

A Message from Superintendent Deborah Flores: Preparing for the State’s Budget

The major challenge faced by both the Santa Barbara Elementary and High School Districts continues to be the budget. The combined budgets of both Districts is approximately $100 million. Our Districts, along with our colleagues from throughout the state, are closely following day-to-day developments in the state budget crisis. Analysts have projected an estimated deficit of more than $34 billion and pending cuts in education.

Two important actions will be taken during the month of January:

  1. Governor Davis will release his proposed 2003-2004 budget on January 10, 2003. Our Districts’ will then begin the process of analyzing the proposal that is released that day. We anticipate that important information will be gained when our Districts’ representatives attend a workshop in Sacramento next week, where further discussions and analysis will take place. This is a fluid process because the document that is unveiled on January 10th reflects the Governor’s vision and the proposal is subject to change as it moves into the sphere of the Legislature.
  2. By the end of the month, the Legislature will take action on proposed mid-year cuts. At this moment, it appears likely that there will be a reduction of categorical revenues by at least 3.66% and general revenue by 2.15% in the current (2002-2003) budget.

Educational analysts are advising districts that both of these actions will have a dramatic effect on our current year’s budgets and next year’s budgets.

In addition to the negative impacts of state budget cuts, at the local level we are still dealing with declining enrollment in the Elementary District, which has a direct impact on revenue. For each of the past three years, due to a number of factors, it has been necessary to make deep budget cuts. The Santa Barbara Elementary District serves approximately 6,000 students in grades K-6.

The High School District, which serves approximately 10,000 students in grades 7-12, is projected to begin declining in enrollment in the 2005-2006 school year. In anticipation, budget tightening is underway.

On December 9, 2002, following announcements of mid-year budget cuts, a spending freeze was put into effect in both of our districts. The spending freeze will remain in effect until the Governor Davis and the Legislature agree on the state’s course of action, which we expect will take place in mid-January.

This is a very unique situation. Once the state of the budget is known, a series of Board of Education meetings will be scheduled to review the impact of the state budget cuts and to develop a list of possible Districts budget cuts. This process will begin with Board budget workshops in February and March, dates to be determined.

Friday, January 10, 2003

Upcoming Change, on a Trial Basis, in the Board of Education’s Meeting Date

In response to a request from the Santa Barbara Independent, the Board of Education has considered and approved a change in their regularly scheduled meeting date. The request was made because the Santa Barbara Independent is published on Thursdays, and printed the day before. It has been difficult for the newspaper to provide timely information about Wednesday Board meetings.

The Board’s regularly scheduled meetings have been on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month. That will change in February, when the meeting date moves to Tuesdays. The change will be in effect through June, at which time it will be evaluated. Thus, the regularly scheduled meetings, which begin at 7:00 p.m., will take place on the following dates:

The location will remain the same. Meetings are held in the Board Room, Administration Office, Santa Barbara School Districts, 720 Santa Barbara Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101.

Note: There will be additional, budget-related special-focus Board meetings in February and March. The dates and times have not yet been determined. That information will be provided in the form of news releases and posted on the Districts’ web site, once it is available.