School District Slashes Budget

A preliminary budget for 1991-92 that trims more than $2 million from the previous year’s spending but still results in a $600,000 shortfall was presented at Monday’s meeting of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District board.

Supt. Michael Caston said the preliminary budget, which forecasts revenues of $30.2 million and expenditures of $30.3 million, needs to be sliced by $590,400 to boost contingency reserve funds from 1.4% to a more acceptable 3%.

“There is still a fairly significant deficit,” Caston said. But he added that revisions and adjustments could bring the spending plan into a “manageable state.”

Pointing to the budget, Trustee Brenton F. Goodrich chastised critics of the board’s consolidation of the district’s three public high schools, a move that is expected to save about $2.3 million in 1991-92.

“Even with the steps that we’re taking, we’re still facing financial difficulty,” Goodrich said.

At Caston’s urging, the school board agreed to a special meeting April 15 to discuss the budget.

“It still needs quite a bit of work,” Caston said. “We need to talk about some of the uncertainties.”