Saddleback Valley School Board May Support Jerry Brown's Tax Hike Proposal

The Saddleback Valley Unified School District board will consider lending its support to Gov. Jerry Brown's bid to extend some taxes at its Tuesday meeting.

Saddleback Valley Unified schools will lose at least $335 per student, or $10 million annually, if are not approved by state voters in June, according to school district officials.

The district staff is recommending that the board adopt a resolution in favor of Brown’s proposal to place a measure on the June 2011 ballot extending those tax measures for five years. The proposed resolution notes that the district already had to cut $32 million from its budget last year alone.

Brown’s proposed state budget would rely on a combination of spending cuts and those tax revenues to fill a $25-billion budget gap. While that budget spares K-12 education from further cuts, Brown has said that would change without voter approval of tax extentions.

At its meeting, the board is scheduled to hear a budget update from Geri Partida, assistant superintendent for business, at a special early session beginning at 4:15 p.m.

, Partida warned the board that the district is in a fiscal emergency and will be facing tough decisions this spring.  The district has a $9-million budget deficit for the 2011-12 school year, and in 2012-13, that deficit could rise to as much as $34 million because federal stimulus funds and reserve funds will no longer be available, she said.

That deficit exists independently of any new cuts that schools might face in this year’s state budget, officials said.

In other items, the board will also consider whether to approve an agreement that would allow a private Christian school from Laguna Hills to move to the campus of the shuttered O’Neill Elementary in Mission Viejo.

Superintendent Clint Harwick is asking the board to approve a use agreement for Pathway School Inc. to lease half of the property at the former elementary school. The district closed O’Neill in 2009 due to declining enrollment.

The site currently houses the district’s department of recreation and community services, and some adult-education courses are held there, but many former classrooms remain empty.

According to the board’s agenda, the site would be leased at a starting rate of $0.66 per square foot, or $17,007 per month, and the agreement would cover one year.

If the board approves the lease, it would generate approximately $168,000 in new revenues for the district and Pathway could move onto the site at the start of the new school year in September, said Jeff Starr, director of business services for the district. The recreation offices would remain at O’Neill, Starr said.

Pathway School Inc. serves grades K-8 and is renting space from St. George’s Episcopal Church in Laguna Hills.

According to Pathway’s website, the school offers a curriculum guided by Christian principles to students who struggle in a traditional classroom setting.

Pathway serves at-risk learners who do not qualify for intervention programs in public schools, as well as students with identified learning differences such as attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning disabilities, dyslexia and Asperger's syndrome, the website says.

The board meeting is scheduled to begin with the budget update at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 8, at the Education Center boardroom, at 25631 Peter A. Hartmann Way in Mission Viejo. The board will adjourn for its private session at 5:15 p.m., and the public session will resume at 6:15 p.m.