Oakdale school district passes budget plan with small raises

By EVE HIGHTOWER
ehightower@modbee.com

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OAKDALE -- Without protest or comment from a teacher, Oakdale Joint Unified School District passed a preliminary budget and approved modest raises for all employees at a meeting Monday night.

After approving the preliminary budget with $1.2 million in cuts, teachers, bus drivers, secretaries and administrators received a 1.5 percent raise retroactive to July 2007, compared with 5 percent last year.

No one was laid off. Not a single pink slip was handed out.

Modbee.com continuing coverage: School budget crisis

In March, Superintendent Wendell Chun credited late salary negotiations and the district's savings in avoiding layoffs.

"You're looking at what's best for the whole team. A raise might be nice, but sometimes what's best is that people keep their jobs," said first-time labor contract negotiator Leticia Salas.

In contrast to the sizable audience at the March meeting when trustees first considered the cuts, only a handful of people were present Monday. Neither the budget nor the pay raise inspired a comment.

"We can't ask for what they don't have," said Linda Kraus, president of the Oakdale Teachers Association.

Said Salas: "We're grateful nobody has been laid off at Oakdale."

Some vacancies will go unfilled, however.

The 2008-2009 budget also dips into the district's reserve funds. By using $294,817 from the reserve, the district closed the gap between its anticipated expenditures ($41,843,580) and revenue ($41,548,763), Assistant Superintendent Tim Hern said.

That revenue is largely based on the number of students. The more students, the more state funding the district gets.

District officials had anticipated 60 fewer students this school year, but lost only half that, Chun said. The district serves 5,200 students. That gave the district about $180,000 more than anticipated when first discussing cuts six months ago.

Chun also credits the district's self-imposed 5 percent reserve mandate, which is 2 percent more than the state requires. Even while dipping into its reserve, the district is saving almost twice what the state demands, $1,692,308.

Bee staff writer Eve Hightower can be reached at ehightower@modbee.com or 578-2382.