No More Budgets, No More Books

By Ann K. Williams
Staff Writer

June 28 -- Friday was the last day of school, and School Board members were in an agreeable mood as they adopted a $106.5 million budget for fiscal year 2005-2006 in less than an hour before taking a month-long vacation from regular meetings.

The budget -- which may need further adjusting when the Legislature approves a State budget -- could be further tweaked after the District signs a new contract with the teachers union.

“I’m just happy that we are where we are, because certainly three months ago, four months ago, I thought we would be in a different place,” said board Vice President Julia Brownley.

The “Final Budget” shows general fund revenues totaling $106,575,503 and expenditures of $107,808,524.

The District plans to make up the difference and balance the budget with money carried over from this year, Superintendent Dr. John Deasy said.

The District will close its fiscal books on August 31, 2005 and present them to the board in September.

The budget “will be filed Monday morning with the County Board of Education, and obviously we await the State budget at this point and once we have the State budget we will call for another meeting to make changes relative to that,” Deasy said.

The outcome of negotiations between the district and the Santa Monica-Malibu chapter of the California Teachers Association (CTA) may also affect the evolution of the budget.

The latest version of the budget shows only step-wise pay increases as required by the union’s current contract with the district. If the district and the CTA agree to a pay increase, the budget will have to be amended.

Union officials were “pleased with the tone and tenor” of ongoing talks with the district, and were “looking forward to a rapid and successful negotiation,” according to CTA President Harry Keiley’s report read to the board by Marc Sanschagrin at the June 16 board meeting.

But just before Friday’s meeting, Deasy said they are “nowhere near resolving” the issue of pay increases. The district’s next meeting with the union will be held on Friday, July 1.

One other item remained on the agenda, one that was left over from the June 16 board meeting.

The board adopted a policy which will require “hospitality operations” that lease land from the District to sign a labor peace agreement which must include a “no-strike pledge.”

The Doubletree Hotel leases district property and has been a focal point in recent years of struggles by local hotel workers to unionize.

“It is essential that these operations conduct business efficiently and without interruption” to ensure a continuous “revenue stream”, according to district staff.

“I want to thank the superintendent for making sure that this sort of dovetailed with the budget because I think it’s appropriate,” Brownley said.

Board Member Oscar de la Torre supported the policy because “it will help us secure our investments.”

The next regular meeting of the Board of Education will be held on Thursday, July 28 at 5:30 p.m. in the District Office board room at 1651 16th Street.