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By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer
May 30 -- To help bridge a projected $11 million
budget short-fall, the School District will not only need
to cut positions, it will need to make sure young students
stay in the system through high school, District officials
said.
"We need to try to convince families to stay with us
once they're here,” Superintendent Dianne Talarico told
The Lookout last week. “We have people who
appear to be enjoying our elementary schools.
“I want to take a look what they'd like to see in terms
of middle school options and high school options."
The push to retain students comes after a moratorium on “permits”
for students from outside the Santa Monica and Malibu led
to a projected loss of enrollment, which means less State
and Federal dollars.
Intended to reduce class sizes, the more restrictive district
policy led to a decrease in enrollment of more than 900 students
over the past three years, district officials said. The trend
is expected to continue.
"The moratorium is the root cause for the decline,"
Talarico said. "I think we ought to put some energy into
stabilizing enrollment figures.
In an effort to address a long-term budget shortfall, District
officials this month unveiled a 2007-2008 budget that would
cut 26 full-time teaching positions through attrition over
the next year and save the district nearly $1.6 million every
year thereafter, according to officials.
Talarico said many of the teachers were already preparing
to leave the district only months after the School Board voted
to give teachers a controversial five percent raise that was
opposed by the District's former CFO, Winston Braham.
"We have about 25 retiring and various other teachers
retired for personal reasons, family reasons," Talarico
said. “We have really taken the action necessary to
get three years out that we need to get the things that we
need now."
Talarico estimates each teaching position cut through attrition
will save the district nearly $60,000 in salary and benefits
each year.
No matter the strategy, the District will need to address
the declining enrollment, otherwise it will face deeper cuts,
the superintendent cautioned.
"You can't stay in decline, otherwise you go out of business,"
Talarico said.
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