District safe from layoffs — for now

The Laguna Beach Unified School District has not issued any pink slips, despite statewide teacher layoffs.

The district’s “basic aid” designation means that it receives its primary income from county property taxes, rather than state coffers, and is not as subject to the state’s budget emergency.

Laguna and Newport-Mesa are the only two such districts in the county; many others, including adjacent Capistrano Unified and Saddleback Valley Unified, recently sent notices to hundreds of teachers and staff to meet $4 billion in state-mandated cuts.

Due to teachers’ union requirements, districts must issue layoff notices by March 15. However, the notices went unsent, and all Laguna teachers and staff passed the milestone unscathed.

“We have escaped for now,” district Assistant Supt. for Business Services Norma Shelton said.

The district receives a percentage of the county’s property tax revenues.

As Laguna Beach’s property values are higher than the rest of the county, the district receives a higher percentage of the revenues.

That percentage, however, also applies to the amount of property tax refunds issued by the county; the district stands to lose that money.

The district is monitoring figures from the county tax collector indicating the amount of property tax refunds it will issue. The data is expected in late May or early June.

The state attempted five years ago to remove basic aid payments entirely in order to save just $17.8 million, according to the Finance Department.

“Because the state was in such a poor economic condition, the Department of Finance looked around and felt that basic aid districts were receiving excess money,” Shelton said.

So they sought to take away about 60 districts’ primary form of funding. The districts retaliated by joining together to bring the subject to the legislators.

Parents, teachers and community members rallied with letter-writing campaigns and other measures in what Shelton called a very intense period.

The state was shown statistics indicating that Laguna was not eligible for a lot of what similar districts received, Shelton said.

A district in San Diego County received military dollars; a district in Kern County received oil revenues. Another received property assessment fees.

The Department of Finance withdrew when it realized the amount it could take from basic aid districts wouldn’t be enough to help the other schools; in addition to decimating the basic aid districts, they would be robbing Peter to pay Paul.

But the district didn’t emerge unscathed. Laguna used to receive a $120 “basic aid” daily average attendance allowance per student from the state, but lost the funds at the time.

That was nothing compared to the “perfect storm” 15 years ago, Shelton said — when the Laguna Beach fires, the Orange County bankruptcy and plummeting property values all converged.

The cyclical nature of education financing inspired the district to create a reserve of two thirds of one school year’s budget; there are talks today of extending the reserve further.

The district has never ceased its lobbying efforts to keep the basic aid option on the table; in April, Shelton and Supt. Robert Fraisse will attend a Sacramento conference in which they will educate legislators about the rare funding method.