VENTURA : School Budget With Salary Cuts OKd

The school board of the Ventura Unified School District has approved a $54.6-million budget for next school year that includes salary cuts of 1.6% for teachers and administrators.

The total cuts approved Tuesday by the board amounted to $2.4 million, said finance director Joseph Richards. The board voted 4 to 0 to approve the budget. Board member Terence Kilbride was not present for the vote.

Originally, district officials had projected a deficit of about $3.2 million, but the deficit was offset by increases in several sources of revenue, Richards said.

Those increases include an insurance refund of $1.08 million because the district’s claims this year were not as high as in previous years, and a projected $190,000 increase in next year’s lottery revenues, officials said. A spending freeze imposed earlier this year will save an additional $450,000.

The 1.6% salary cuts will save the district about $700,000, officials said. Other cuts included the termination of an audiovisual contract with the county and a visiting educator program.

In all, the cuts amounted to about 4% of the district’s total budget.