San Diego School District officials say a new truancy center for at-risk students may never open due to the looming state budget cuts. KPBS Reporter Ana Tintocalis explains.
The truancy center was project former superintendent Carl Cohn pushed while he was in office last year. Students caught skipping school would get instruction and counseling there.
Last summer district officials agreed to a five-year, half-a-million dollar lease to secure a Mission Valley office space for the center. But since that time Cohn resigned and now the district faces an $80 million loss in state education funding.
The district's William Kowba says San Diego Unified can't back out of that lease, however the district may not have the money to foot the bill.
Kowba: Because of the severe budget cuts, we included a myriad of possible things, including closure of the intervention center. So if that happens we're going to have to work with the owner to deal with options for using that property. So we're going to have to consider our possibilities and we haven't gotten to that point yet in any discussion with the owner.
Kowba says things could change as budget talks move forward in Sacramento. The vision may have to wait until the current belt tightening is over
Ana Tintocalis, KPBS News.
