The Lagunitas School District is working to address a $165,711 budget deficit, for starters by electing not to renew the contract of the district’s special education director, Pat O’Connor, at a savings of around $30,000 next year.
Ms. O’Connor was hired by the Bolinas-Stinson Union School District for a one-year deal to administer the district’s special education program and, according to Superintendent John Carroll, was contracted out to three other districts: Lagunitas, Nicasio and Shoreline Unified. “The district has gotten along well without a special education director [in the past],” said Mr. Carroll, who serves as the superintendent for both Lagunitas and Bolinas-Stinson. “It was helpful to have somebody, but it was not critical.”
Ms. O’Connor told the Light that she will continue to work with Shoreline.
Lagunitas will have to make additional cuts to its budget—or at least signal its serious intent to make cuts—in order to appease the Marin County Office of Education. Last Thursday, during the board’s March meeting, the district’s business consultant, Terri Ryland, presented her second interim budget report and explained that rising health and welfare costs for district employees could, within three years, drop the district below a minimum reserve level—currently 5 percent—that the county requires.
In recent months, Lagunitas has held ad hoc budget committee meetings to discuss shaving the budget, and this effort, Ms. Ryland said, is what the county wants to see prior to approving a final budget in June. “You are making plans,” said Ms. Ryland, who stepped in this year to fill the gap left by the district’s former business manager, Bruce Abbott. “You are confident. I am confident that you will make it, but right now the numbers say you might not.”
Ms. Ryland estimated that costs for the CalSTRS and CalPERS employee retirement benefits programs will increase by approximately 8 percent over the next three years. Though no concrete actions have been taken so far, Mr. Carroll confirmed that negotiations with the Lagunitas Teachers Association and the California School Employees Association are open and that salaries and benefits are on the table.
“We can’t commit to anything because we are still in budget-cutting mode,” Mr. Carroll said. “My optimistic hope is that we can present a presentation to the board [by the next meeting] for a plan to reduce the budget for 2015-16 to a level that would be acceptable.” The next board meeting is scheduled for April 23.