By Maggie Robak
Staff Writer
Updates were made to the planned 2011-2012 school budget by the Manhattan Beach Unified School District school board at a board meeting on Feb 16.
Despite the state of the economy and layoffs in past years, the board remains optimistic about not having to layoff any teachers this year. All staff layoffs have to be voted on by Mar 9, but the board states that there will most likely be none this year.
“We’re so thankful that we are cutting down the number of pink slips given out this year. While [Los Angeles Unified School District] is announcing their 5,000 layoffs, we are announcing far fewer, if any, and that is a good feeling,” MBUSD superintendent Michael Matthews said.
Since the original budget was planned on Feb 2, Manhattan Beach Education Foundation made its official donation of $4.1 million to MBUSD, which exceeded the amount that was estimated by the board.
“This donation is direct result of the community. I would like to thank all of the volunteers for their hard work and dedication,” MBUSD board president Bill Fournell said.
MBEF’s contribution will be used to fund many courses and teachers’ jobs. It will keep class sizes down and support numerous programs already existing at Mira Costa.
“It’s pretty amazing that in these times, we are able to keep class sizes down,” MBUSD board clerk Ida Vanderpoorte said.
As well as the money being received from MBEF, MBUSD will also be receiving $281,119 from the American Recovery Reinvestment Act.
The two remaining factors in the budget that haven’t been decided on yet are the Revenue Limit funding and the AB 3632 funding. Revenue Limit funding will be voted on in June. If it does not pass, MBUSD will lose about $349 per student in funding. The AB 3632 funding is in a lawsuit in the California Court of Appeals and has not been resolved yet.
“The good news is that these uncertainties have been factored into our budget, so we have planned for the worst case scenario,” Matthews said.
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