DISTRICT MUST CUT BUDGET $2.2 MILLION GAP HAUNTS MUROC SCHOOLS.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

NORTH EDWARDS - Faced with a projected deficit of $2.2 million by June 2002, Muroc Joint Unified School District administrators have come up with a recommended list of cuts to trim the nearly $23 million budget.

The recommendations total about $1.4 million and include not giving out one-time bonus pay and freezing automatic step and column increases for employees, proposals subject to negotiation with the district's unions.

Other proposed cuts include eliminating physical education aides, cutting back district funds for computer lab aides and leaving some administrative posts vacant.

``We are not having any layoffs in administrative or teaching staff,'' said Mike Summerbell, assistant superintendent for educational services. ``Part-time positions will be eliminated in classified staff.''

The budget recommendations were presented to the trustees at Thursday's meeting for review.

The board did adopt one recommendation: moving Robert McGowan Continuation High School from North Edwards to the campus of Boron High School, a step that will save $56,100 and affect about 20 students, a district report said.

Kern County officials have appointed a fiscal adviser for the 2,400-student district under provisions of state legislation passed in 1991, prompted by the bankruptcy of a school district in Northern California.

The board in early July adopted a 2001-02 $22.9 million operating budget, up 2.8 percent from the previous year. The district has until Sept. 8 to submit a revised spending plan to the county.

Eliminating the bonus would save the district $563,348, while freezing salary schedules would save an additional $323,200, the report said.

Other reductions suggested include eliminating positions for the principal at Bailey Avenue Elementary School and the district's maintenance and operations foreman and librarian; reducing substitute teacher pay; elimination of physical education instructional aides; and cutting district funding of computer lab aides, the report said.

The administration would leave five of 14 administrative posts vacant, and the teaching staff has been reduced by seven, Summerbell said. Teachers who left by either retiring or resigning will not be replaced, Summerbell said.

The district said in early July that it expected to end the 2000-01 fiscal year with a shortfall of more than $500,000, which was attributed to raises given to both teaching and nonteaching staffers.

Teachers were given an 11 percent raise as part of a two-year pact that expires next year.

Adding to the district's financial burden this fiscal year is a 40 percent increase in energy costs, a 23 percent increase in health benefits and $1.4 million less in federal impact aid - money the federal government pays school districts that contain federal land, which generates no tax revenue, or that have a large concentration of children whose parents are military or civilians working for the federal government. Four of Muroc's seven schools are on Edwards Air Force Base.