With state funding reductions looming in the middle of the current fiscal year, the San Diego Unified School District Board of Education will meet today to consider ways to lower spending.
Proposals before board members include eliminating 55 classified staff positions -- of which 13 are vacant -- implementing a hiring freeze and suspending non-urgent overtime and other extra pay.
Last month, California's Legislative Analyst reported that state revenues were running $3.7 billion below projections, an amount expected to trigger statewide spending cuts and reduce funding to local school districts.
The SDUSD financial staff estimated the district would lose $26 million to $30 million in state funding in the current fiscal year under such a scenario.
The revenue loss would also put a crimp on budget planning for the next fiscal year, which would have a budget shortfall estimated by the district to be between $90 million and $97 million. If there were no reductions in state funding for the current fiscal year, the next year's budget gap would be around $65 million to $70 million, according to the SDUSD.
