DISTRICT BUDGET GROWING BY 2%.Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer LANCASTER Lancaster, city, England Lancaster (lăng`kəstər), city (1991 pop. 43,902) and district, county seat of Lancashire, NW England, on the Lune River. -- Antelope Valley Union High School District The Antelope Valley Union High School District (A.V.U.H.S.D.) is located in the Antelope Valley area of California, in northern Los Angeles County. The district includes eight public high schools, one trade school, and two continuation high schools in the cities of Palmdale trustees have adopted a 2006-07 $187.9 million operating budget Noun 1. operating budget - a budget for current expenses as distinct from financial transactions or permanent improvements budget items, operating cost, operating expense, overhead - the expense of maintaining property (e.g. , up more than 2 percent over the prior year. The spending plan projects an enrollment growth of about 1,000 students, which will bring the district's total student population to 25,400. ``We are in a growth district,'' said Cathy Shepard, chief financial officer. ``When you open new schools and more students are coming, we have to hire more people.'' The district employs more than 2,500 employees, including full-time and part-time workers and substitutes, Shepard said. New hires for the coming school year include 32 teachers, eight special education teachers, six administrative staff, 14 special education instructional aides and 18 nonteaching positions. Spending on teaching and nonteaching salaries and benefits accounts for nearly 82 percent of the district's general fund budget. The district's special education student population is growing and now accounts for 25 percent of the district's enrollment, Shepard said. The funds the district receives to provide special education services does not cover all the costs. For the 2006-07 school year, the district will receive $24.5 million in funding but will spend $31.9 million, producing an encroachment An illegal intrusion in a highway or navigable river, with or without obstruction. An encroachment upon a street or highway is a fixture, such as a wall or fence, which illegally intrudes into or invades the highway or encloses a portion of it, diminishing its width or area, but of $7.4 million on the general fund, records show. ``We were kind of hoping for more help with special education. Special education is so severely underfunded un·der·fund tr.v. un·der·fund·ed, un·der·fund·ing, un·der·funds To provide insufficient funding for. underfunded adj → infradotado (económicamente) ,'' board president Donita Winn said. ``The district has to spend $7 million toward unfunded mandates An unfunded mandate is a statute that requires government or private parties to carry out specific actions, but does not appropriate any funds for that purpose. Examples An increase in cost-of-living adjustment cost-of-living adjustment n. Abbr. COLA An adjustment made in wages that corresponds with a change in the cost of living. funding from the state helped boost the district's revenues. The budget has a reserve of 4.8 percent, above the 3 percent level mandated by the state. ``We are happy the governor signed the budget on time. We are happy with the money he gave us. We were hoping to get more additional funding in a more flexible nature, as opposed to being told how to spend it, but we will take it any way we can get it,'' Shepard said. karen.maeshiro@dailynews.com (661) 267-5744 |
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