San Ramon Valley school officials are going to have to use more than 40 percent of their available budget reserves to make up for upcoming cuts in state funding.
State officials announced this week that California will be receiving $3.7 billion less in revenues this fiscal year than they expected.
That is triggering an automatic mid-year cut of $2 billion to education and social services.
Terry Koehne, a spokesman for the San Ramon Valley Unified School District, said the district expects to receive $7.8 million less in state funds the remainder of this fiscal year.
Rather than cut from the district's $223 million budget, district administrators plan to use $7.8 million of the $18 million of available reserve funds to plug the gap.
"The problem with mid-year cuts is you've already adopted your budget for the year," said Koehne.
He said the district should be able to "weather the storm" this year because of careful financial planning in the past.
"The writing has been on the wall. You could see this coming," Koehne said.
However, he warned of a "bigger problem" coming down the road. Koehne said the state is projecting a $13 billion shortfall in revenues in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.
He noted the district for the past four years has already been receiving $30 million a year less in state funds than it's entitled to receive under Proposition 98.
He said budget tightening measures such as furlough days and no cost of living raises will most certainly continue.
