Basic Aid schools face funding cuts
State’s budget impasse my target local districts
By Jesse Duarte
The Weekly Calistogan
Proposals in the state Legislature that would affect funding for Basic Aid school districts are getting resistance from the St. Helena Unified School District — and other Basic Aid districts support them.
School officials in Calistoga’s neighbors to the south are watching two pieces of legislation — SB 64 and ABX3 42 — that would require Basic Aid districts to take a bigger hit whenever the state cuts education funding.
It’s still unclear how big that hit would be, but St. Helena and Calistoga stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in categorical funding for items like class size reduction, teacher’s aides, transportation and staff development.
Right now Basic Aid districts like St. Helena, Calistoga, Howell Mountain, Pope Valley and the Napa County Office of Education are relatively insulated from state cuts because they’re funded primarily by local property tax revenues.
Under the new legislation, whenever ordinary “revenue-limit” districts get cut, Basic Aid districts would have to take a proportionately “fair share” hit to their categorical funding.
All school districts got their categoricals cut by 15 percent in 2008-09, and by another 5 percent in ‘09-‘10. But Basic Aid districts like St. Helena were immune from other painful cuts that affected only revenue-limit districts.
The reasoning behind the legislation is that Basic Aid districts should share the pain. And for the most part, local Basic Aid superintendents agree.
“It comes back to what’s fair and what’s being a good neighbor,” said Howell Mountain Superintendent Tom Stubbs, who said his district stands to lose $70,000-$80,000 a year. “We need to take some of the hit here. And if we don’t, it’s very likely that the governor and the state Legislature will come after our property taxes.”
Other Basic Aid superintendents, like Barbara Nemko of the Napa County Board of Education and Florence Eaton in Pope Valley, have similar views.
Nemko said the provision is an attempt by Basic Aid districts to preempt the Legislature from going after their property tax revenues.
But St. Helena officials see things differently. According to Superintendent Robert Haley, the district stands to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars without any guarantee that the state won’t later decide to go after property taxes anyway.
“The money they’d generate by doing this to Basic Aid districts is a drop in the bucket for the state, so it feels very punitive,” said Catrina Howatt, chief business official for the St. Helena school district. “But it could be significant to us.”
The district is tracking the legislation closely with the help of lobbyists, said Howatt.
As of Tuesday, the entire budget remained in limbo as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers tried to hammer out a compromise. But with the state’s fiscal situation in disarray, it appears likely that Basic Aid funding will be affected eventually.
Dr. Esmeralda Mondragon began her job as Superintendent of Schools in Calistoga on Wednesday. She’ll be the force behind helping Calistoga’s Board of Trustees how the district to deal with the issue and help plan any cuts if it comes to that. Earlier this year the Board of Trustees had decided to make cuts of more than $220,000, and had contemplated the possible need to make further cuts, depending on the outcome of the state budget impasse.
Weekly Calistogan Editor John Waters Jr. contributed to this report.