Students in the Calaveras Unified School District will see few changes in their classrooms when the 2009-10 school year begins July 29, and administrators with the district serving the largest number of children in the county hope they can keep it that way as the financial cards are dealt from Sacramento.

“You have a balanced budget before you for 2009-10,” Mike Merrill, assistant superintendent for business services, told trustees Tuesday. “We have to take these adult situations and deal with them as adults and keep the mess from our kids.”

Because of the state Legislature's $24 billion-plus budget deficit, almost everything in education has been trimmed to the bare bones. For CUSD, a large number of staff members who opted to retire after the 2008-09 school year, combined with the district not refilling some open teaching positions, saved the board of trustees from having to lay off teachers in '08-'09. The hours for several classified employees n office assistants, media specialists (formerly librarians), gardeners and janitors n were either reduced or eliminated near the end of last year's session. Ultimately, 13 people were laid off from support staff.

Declining enrollment is also hurting the district and will soon cut into the teaching staff. In the '07-08 budget cycle, CUSD had 3,640 students; in '08-09 the number dropped to 3,553; and there are currently 3,546 children attending classes in the northern county. Projections show that kindergarten registration is down about 20 students.

“That's a staff member,” Merrill told the board. “Staffing is the soul of our district. We staff based on our enrollment.”

Eighty-two percent of the district budget is employee salaries and benefits. Not filling eight teaching positions, the reduction or elimination of some classified staff and not filling an administration post in the new budget saved the district $1,279,353. The district's monthly payroll is about $1.5 million.

The budget trustees adopted Tuesday is a $27 million plan, down about $3 million from the '08-09 budget. Merrill said the state's funding levels for CUSD are down dramatically. It received about $6,120 for the '08-09 fiscal year; the '09 budget is funded at $5,200 per child.

Special education continues to contribute the biggest headache for the district, despite the infusion this year of some one-time federal stimulus money. The district's special education programs will cost the general fund just over $700,000 in 2009-10, which is down a healthy 43 percent from last year. Unfortunately, the prognosis is still very unstable.

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