Shoreline says budget is looking “a lot better”

A larger number of people in the Shoreline Unified School District community are coming to a more complete understanding of how school budgets work, according to Superintendent Tom Stubbs. The district has held a series of ad hoc budget committees open to the public in order to familiarize parents, staff and interested persons with the many complex areas of Shoreline’s budget, which is still facing a structural deficit. The most recent budget meeting was held on Tuesday at Bodega Bay School and was attended by 13 people, including three who tuned in via simulcast feed from West Marin School. “There was a sense that for the first time ever, since I’ve been here, that they trusted the numbers, that they believe the numbers,” Mr. Stubbs said. “I think that we’re on the right path.” As with previous budget meetings, participants broke into groups that focused on specific areas of the budget, including revenue sources, staff salaries, health benefits, special-education costs and other expenditures. “Now we have some people that understand what this budget is, and they represent every school in the district, which is really important,” he added. “We’ve laid a nice, little foundation. It would be a tragedy and very sad if this group of people does not continue to get together going forward into this year and the following year.” Shoreline’s business manager, Bruce Abbott, gave a brief synopsis of the second interim budget update, which will be presented at this Thursday’s regular board meeting at Bodega Bay. The ad hoc committee also discussed a retirement incentives package for classified staff—which includes food, maintenance, transportation and clerical positions—similar to the successful package for certificated teachers that received enough retirees last month. Shoreline’s trustees will vote to approve the classified retirement package at Thursday’s meeting. “[We are] looking a lot better than we were looking last September,” Mr. Stubbs said. “We still have our work to do.” The next ad hoc budget committee meeting will be held in May.