Schools

Capo's Online High School Safe — for This Year

Some school board members want to keep scrutinizing the budget even after it passes, expected later this month.

Capistrano Unified's online high school may be safe for one more year, but but some school board members said they wanted to continue scrutinizing the district’s finances even after getting the 2013-14 budget in order.

Such a review could eventually result in the elimination of programs, such as California Preparatory Academy, which just finished its first full year.

But at the school board meeting Wednesday, other trustees criticized that plan as possibly being “penny-smart and pound foolish.”

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By law, school districts have to pass a budget for the next school year by June 30. Capo officials are currently negotiating with leaders from the various unions. Last year’s negotiations resulted in larger class sizes and a shorter-by-one-week school  year.

District administrators have said they expect negotiations to conclude in a similar way this year.

Find out what's happening in San Juan Capistranowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Trustees Jim Reardon and Ellen Addonizio have been pushing to take a hard look at some programs, scraping for money that could be used to put instructional days back on the school calendar.

“We have an obligation to look at the programs that are within our discretion to make sure we run a tight ship,” Reardon said, adding that he senses some at CUSD believe every program is untouchable. “I can’t accept that every program must continue.”

In the case of the internet-based Cal Prep and a few others, elimination of those programs could buy back an instructional day for students, Reardon said.

“Everything we’re doing in a constrained budget environment is not necessarily worthy of being done,” Reardon said, especially when Cal Prep serves 104 students and a restored school day would serve 49,000.

But trustees who pushed for the creation of the online school two years ago, defended their creation.

“Cal Prep is not going to flourish right out the gate,” said Trustee Anna Bryson. “You can’t tell whether a business is going to survive in the first two-three years; you  need to look at the five-year plan.”

She added that parents requested the school and its launch help put Cap on the “cutting edge.”

President John Alpay was also critical of the jaundice eye given Cal Prep.

“My fear is certain individuals may be penny-wise and pound foolish,” he said.

As for the 2013-14 budget itself, Clark Hampton, deputy superintendent of business services, reported that the state Assembly, Senate and Gov. Brown have reached an agreement on the state’s plan for K-12 next year.

The bottom line is, there will be a bit more money than the district received this year, and the state plans to take eight years to bring up funding to 2007-08 levels, he said.

Superintendent Joseph Farley said it’s probably too late this year to look at programming.

“We’ve cut so much in the past we felt we were already at the bare bones,” he said. But, even with the new funding – which pays out more to districts who service large populations of English learners and poor students – the district will face challenges.

“It’s very likely you’re going to have to make those difficult decisions. It just wasn’t happening this fiscal year,” he said.


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