BILL WOULD PROTECT FUNDING YEAR-ROUND SCHOOLS EYED.

Byline: Holly Edwards Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - State Assemblyman George Runner has introduced a bill that would prevent further cuts in state funding for year-round schools, a reduction that has cost the Newhall School District more than $1 million.

Runner, R-Lancaster, said his bill is designed to stabilize funding for school districts with year-round schedules by making the total number of students the benchmark for funding, rather than the total number of classrooms - a figure that varies according to how each district counts portable classrooms.

The bill is expected to be heard Wednesday by the Assembly Education Committee.

Newhall as well as the Sulphur Springs School District in Canyon Country had counted on special funding for year-round schools, and now faces difficult program cutbacks.

Over the past three years, the Newhall district has received about $1.1 million less than anticipated to fund the extra costs at its seven year-round campuses. Special funding to Sulphur Springs, where three schools are on the year-round system, was about $779,000 short of expectations, officials said.

When applying for year-round education funding, schools are required to report their student populations but are not required to report portable classrooms in the total classroom count, officials said.

Therefore, Runner said, some districts can increase the number of ``unhoused students'' simply by not reporting their portable classrooms.

``The bill seeks to count all students, which is a fairer way than counting classrooms,'' Runner said. ``Now, school districts can decide to count or not to count the portable classrooms, so there's no uniformity.''

Marc Winger, superintendent of the Newhall district, said schools with year-round calendars also have faced a loss of state funding for new construction projects.

``The idea was if you had year-round schools, you were serving your students in other ways and didn't need new construction,'' Winger said. ``But we're not getting full funding for year-round schools, so they shouldn't take all of our funding for new construction projects.''

Runner said his bill would address this problem by retroactively restoring state funding for construction projects based upon a school district's shortfall in year-round education funding.

Therefore, he said, if a school district had a 40 percent deficit in its year-round education funding, it could receive an equivalent amount for new construction projects.

Sulphur Springs Superintendent Robert Nolet said the state is effectively ``double taxing'' school districts with year-round education programs by giving them only a portion of the money promised to them, and then disqualifying them from obtaining any money for construction projects.

``The state encouraged school districts to go year-round so it would lessen their burden to build new facilities,'' Nolet said. ``But when they turn around and tell you you're going to have a deficit in year-round funding, and at the same time you're going to lose all eligibility for construction funding, we really can't be assured of anything.''