Saddleback Valley Keeps Class Sizes, Restores Furlough Days

Teachers at Saddleback Valley Unified School District next year will come back to work on some of the furlough days they had to take in the 2012-13 school year, but class sizes will stay the same.

The 2013-14 budget adopted Tuesday will dip into reserves by $1.1 million, said Geri  Partida, assistant superintendent for business services. The total budget for the coming year is projected to be $51.4 million. The board adopted the budget as well as contracts with three employee unions, each of which restored four days to the school year. While the coming year’s budget will have significant reserves, district officials issued dire projections for several years out as expenses are expected to spike.

The Saddleback Valley Educators Association took nine furloughs in negotiations a few years ago, but with the latest restoration, they are only down two work days from the typical school year.

Two of the other unions each took 15 furlough days originally. With the latest restorations, the Saddleback Valley Pupil Services Association only has three furloughs, and the Saddleback Valley Management Team Association have nine.

The contracts also include a 1.565-percent cost-of-living increase for employees.

The fourth union, the Classified School Employees Association, is still in negotiations with management, Partida said.

However, the next few years' budget projections look pretty dire if neither revenue nor expenses change, Partida cautioned the board Tuesday.

While class sizes will remain the same in the upcoming school year, the teachers' contracts include a measure requiring the district to shrink its 4th-12th-grade classrooms by 2.5 students in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years. As a result, the district would have to hire more teachers, Partida said.

There will also be an 11-percent leap in electricity costs from Southern California Edison for power to replace the energy provided by the now-shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, Partida said -- a rate hike for which the district hadn’t planned.

Couple those factors with enrollment declining by 577 to 625 students per year and a 3- to 6-percent increase in healthcare costs because of federal reforms, and the district’s reserves will be nil in about five years, she said.

"In three years, we'll be OK, but in five years, we're going to be in a lot of trouble," said Board Vice President Dennis Walsh, assuming revenues and expenditures keep on their current course.

Now, the reserves are sitting at $37 million. At the end of 2013-14, they're projected to be at $35 million. At the end of 2014-15, projections show reserves at $26.7 million and at $14.5 million at the end of 2015-16.

Partida said the recovering housing market and rising employment numbers may well make those numbers less dire, however. But, caution dictates conservative budget projections, she said.