This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

Glendora Unified Sees Revenue Increases, Slashed Funding

District also seeks monies to continue providing mental services in face of suspended mandate; votes to increase employee medical benefit cap.

Despite the unpredictability of Sacramento, Glendora Unified saw some positive gains in its 2010-2011 financial report during the district's Sept. 13 board meeting.

Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Marc Chaldu presented the numbers on the district’s annual financial report for 2010-2011.

Even with the financial ambiguities caused by the fiasco in Sacramento, Glendora Unified saw a moderate revenue increase of just over $333,000 in 2010.

Find out what's happening in Glendorawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Intermittent reports on the financial stability of a district are required by law under AB 1200 and are available to the public.

The board was elated to know that after the completion of modernization projects throughout the district, those projects came under budget and there will be a sizeable fund left over.

Find out what's happening in Glendorawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Glendora Unified spent close to $5.9 million this year on modernization projects, according to Chaldu, but once completed the district will have roughly $500,000 left over in bond money with projects coming in under budget.

“To have a balance left over really goes to show the money has been handled very wisely,” Chaldu said.

Once again, District of Choice was highly praised for having kept the district in a more positive phase.

The program brought in over 1,400 new students to Glendora Unified. Coupled with Allen Bill students, and Interdistrict students, over 1,600 students have given administrators reason to celebrate.

“Without these kids, we’d be running our show with $5 million less a year,” said Mike Gautreau, board member, giving a rough estimate.

“The most striking thing to me is the District of Choice,” said board member Denise Delgado. “If we didn’t have District of Choice and we were still declining … I can’t imagine what the district would look like.”

Despite all this, the district expressed dismay over Sacramento’s lack of financial responsibility in special education funding as Glendora Unified continues to dip in to general fund monies to support special education.

Glendora Unified spent roughly $3.6 million in 2010-2011 in special education encroachment as the state slashed reimbursement costs to districts. In 2009-2010 Glendora spent roughly $4.2 million in general fund money.

“It’s not just the numbers, and the numbers are daunting, it’s the fact that we don’t know from one year to the next what it’s going to be,” said Doug Ferrell, board president. “It’s assumed it should be reimbursed.”

The district approved a tentative agreement with the Glendora Teachers Association and the California School Employees Association for the 2011-2012 fiscal year to increase the medical benefits cap by $750 per eligible employee.

Part of the negotiated agreement was to raise the cap by $500, according to Chaldu and if the budget looked more promising, it was agreed to raise the cap an additional $250.

The total cost to the district will be $341,250.

Despite the cost to the district at a time when money is in flux, Chaldu reiterated that this is a one-year agreement and that the district’s larger ending balance could support this.

Before the night ended, Glendora approved a Memorandum of Understanding with the L.A. County Department of Mental Health to receive funding under AB 100, the Mental Health Services Act.

With mental health services funding slashed, districts are looking for alternate ways to fund their services.

AB 3632, which required districts to coordinate special education and mental health services with their counties, was the original funding mechanism for such services.

The mandate was line item vetoed by then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in Oct. 2010 to help close the massive budget gap.

Funding under AB 100 was allocated for 2011-2012 only; the county’s Department of Mental Health has only $33.1 million in reserves and funding will likely run out by Dec. 31.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?