San Ramon Valley Unified School District Reports Deepening Deficit

Facing an estimated $30 million shortfall over the next two years, the San Ramon Valley Unified School District fell from a positive to a "qualified" budget certification for the first time in more than a decade.

The district, which serves students in Danville, San Ramon and Alamo, must make cuts to combat a projected $7 million deficit for the 2010-11 school year and a $24 million deficit for 2011-12, according to Terry Koehne, community relations coordinator for the school district.

Budget reports are categorized as positive, "qualified" if a district may not be able to meet financial obligations through the 2011-12 school year and negative if a district will not be able to pay bills for the current and subsequent two fiscal years.

Koehne said the school district is "absolutely" in the qualified certification because it will still be $1,011,176 short of meeting the required 3 percent reserve, even with more than $15 million in cuts and concessions that have yet to be bargained.

"We're going to be a few million dollars to the good at the end of this year but we anticipate falling well below that by the end of next year," he said. "That's what it means for us to be qualified."

By state law, school districts are required to report to the County Superintendent of Schools with their first interim finance report in December and their second in March.

San Ramon Valley, along with Martinez, were the two Contra Costa County districts that dropped to qualified certification since December. Antioch, Knightsen and West Contra Costa school districts were qualified again.

Rachel Hurd, president of the Board of Education, said the district's qualified certification is due to a reduction in revenue and funding. School districts across the state are taking a $225 cut per student this year and it appears the reduction will be ongoing given the governor's proposed forecast.

"We are fortunate we have a pretty significant reserve but we are eating through that right now because we didn't make many cuts last year with stimulus money and reserves," she said.

For the 2010-2011 school year, the school district has included $3 million in compensation concessions and reductions of $2.4 million in maintenance contribution and $1 million in central administration.

Koehne said the district will "continue to make reductions" in class sizes, counseling services, central administration and maintenance and summer school.

"Our priorities throughout this process have been to remain solvent and to preserve jobs and to protect programs," Koehne said. "Everything that we do in regards to how we're going to attempt to put forth a balanced budget over the next couple of years is going to be with those priorities in mind."

Despite the qualified certification, Board of Education Member Bill Clarkson stressed the need to wait for a more concrete picture of the budget before drawing conclusions.

"In some ways it doesn't mean a whole lot because we have not yet approved our budget for next year and we're in the middle of negotiations with bargaining units," he said. "Once we're done we'll know where we stand."

You can learn more about the school budget crisis in our Patch Primer.