Sonoma school district to chop $2M from budget

District has to cut $2 million by Jan. 15|

The Sonoma Valley Unified School District board Tuesday will take the first steps in addressing $2 million that has to be cut from next year’s budget.

As of Friday, when the board packet was delivered, there were concepts for cuts, but no dollar signs were attached.

Some of the places the district will be looking at include class size, administration staffing and retirement incentives.

“Right now, this is kind of nibbling around the edges,” said board President Dan Gustafson. “We’ve done it before. It won’t be fun or pretty, but we’ll get there.”

The district doesn’t have a lot of time as the Sonoma County Office of Education is demanding $2 million in cuts by Jan. 15. And the board may have to cut an additional $1 million.

As part of the plan, the district will enact a hiring freeze and freeze expenditures.

SCOE sent the district a letter, dated Sept. 29, but it wasn’t clocked in to the administrative office until Oct. 9 – which was the first day of the fires.

The letter said that the district must implement a spending freeze no later than Oct. 1; that the staff must begin a thorough review of the adopted budget review; review all categorical programs; and develop a staffing ratio consistent with enrollment projections.

Another proposal is to attempt to reduce the number of inter-district transfers since each student that transfers out of the district reduces revenue by $9,029.

“We’re really crunched for time,” Gustafson said. And he said he hasn’t seen anything detailed with dollars attached.

“We haven’t had a financial person in five months,” he said.

Superintendent Chuck Young named a committee after last month’s board meeting that includes the superintendent’s cabinet and four additional people – representatives from both the teachers and the classified unions and two other people from the community.

“I’m eager to hear what they have to say,” Gustafson added.

SCOE Superintendent Steven Herrington will be at tonight’s meeting to discuss the letter that SCOE sent and to answer questions from the administrators and the boards. Herrington was scheduled to be at last month’s board meeting but a death in the family caused him to postpone.

The district is looking at declining enrollment and rising expenditures – including expenditures it has no control over. The district is facing some steep increases in the next couple of years for STRS, the teachers’ pension system, and PERS, the classified employees pension system.

Both retirement plans are going up in cost. This fiscal year, the district is paying $2.9 million in SRTS costs, but that figure is projected to rise to $4.1 million in the 2020-21 fiscal year. PERS rate, which are $1.29 million this fiscal year, will rise to $2 million in the 2020-21 fiscal year.

While the SCOE letter outlines the steps the district must take, Gustafson said, “They don’t want to take over schools.”

Tonight’s public meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Meeting Room, 177 First St. W.

Email Bill at bill.hoban@sonomanews.com.

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