MUROC COPES WITH ENROLLMENT DROP OPTIONS INCLUDE TEACHER REASSIGNMENT.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer

NORTH EDWARDS -- While other Antelope Valley school districts are trying to figure out how to pay for new schools, Muroc Joint Unified School District officials are looking at how to lessen the financial impact of declining enrollment.

Muroc's options include reassigning surplus teachers as permanent substitute instructors and moving one teacher to the continuation high school rather than have layoffs.

``Muroc is going through a phase of declining enrollment because of military downsizing,'' Superintendent Rob Challinor said. ``We are having to look at strategies to mitigate the loss of students and revenue that they generate.''

As Edwards Air Force Base's military work force decreased in the past couple of years, Muroc schools have lost about 250 students whose active-duty parents lived on base.

More base jobs once done by Air Force personnel are being done by civilians as a result of privatization efforts, and military housing on base has been reduced as a result.

An additional 100 students are expected to leave Muroc schools after the Christmas holidays.

``That's the process that the military uses. They select two times out of the year, after the holidays and after June, to rotate people out,'' Challinor said. The district's current enrollment is 2,240 at seven schools.

With the loss of students, the district potentially might have a surplus of four teachers, Challinor said.

One plan would entail not using daily substitute instructors and switching the surplus teachers to permanent substitute status for which they would still receive the same pay, Challinor said.

Another idea is to assign one of the teachers to Robert McGowan High School, an alternative school, and create a second class to serve struggling students, Challinor said.

``It would provide better services and keep students in the district,'' he said. No decisions have been made yet.

``We are looking at a variety of strategies and sharing ideas with the board,'' Challinor said. ``We are not at the point of making any recommendations.''

There are no options to boost enrollment at Muroc, whose standardized test scores are regularly at the top among Antelope Valley schools.

There has been discussion of a joint effort between the district and Edwards Air Force Base to create a before- and after-school program that would provide mentoring and tutoring services to students.

Such a program might draw in children of Edwards' civilian employees who live outside the district, Challinor said.

District officials earlier this year forecast a drop in annual federal impact aid from $4.8 million to $4 million because there are fewer students whose parents are military personnel.

The purpose of the impact aid is to provide a source of revenue because the 301,000-acre base and its residents are exempt from local taxes, district officials said.

Muroc has had budget deficits for the past five years, a not-uncommon fiscal condition because 522 districts, more than half of the districts in the state, are deficit-spending.

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

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