In a recent story, we mis-reported a vote of the Morongo Unified School District Board of Education. Dan Stork makes a correction, and highlights a budget-related worry…
In our story about the June 2 meeting of the Morongo Unified School District Board of Education, we reported that the Board had approved a draft budget for next year. That was incorrect. Rather, the board just held a public hearing on the budget, during which there was neither public comment nor Board discussion. The Board will not vote on the budget until after it has been revised (as needed) following the hoped-for approval of union contracts for certificated and classified employees. Assistant Superintendent Sharon Flores did give an overview report of the draft budget.
In that report, she lit some warning signals for future years:
- The bonus from Prop 30 will go away when Prop 30 expires.
- Current state largesse is dependent upon a reviving economy, which cannot be guaranteed for future years.
- The District, following California as a whole, is expected to continue experiencing enrollment declines. As the state contribution to local districts depends upon enrollment levels, this portends reduced state support for education. We have reproduced with this story on z1077fm.com a dramatic slide that Flores used to illustrate past declines and expected future enrollment trends in the District. The loss in the last six years is equivalent to losing the entire current student population of Yucca Valley High School.
