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School Board Meets Thursday, Will Discuss Funding Categories for New Sales Tax Revenue

Published on Monday, January 21, 2019 | 6:11 pm
 


The Pasadena Unified School District’s Governing Board will discuss on Thursday, January 24, a recommendation by the District administration to approve Broad Funding Categories for the use of funding from Measure J, before these are submitted to the City’s Measure J Ad Hoc Committee as requested.
The Ad Hoc Committee, composed of three members of the City Council and three members of the Board of Education, was formed last year after Pasadena voters passed Measures I and J in the November 2018 elections. The Committee met for the first time in December to set priorities for funding.
Measure I imposes a 0.75 percent Transactions and Use Tax in the City whose proceeds will be used to maintain essential services.
Measure J stipulates that PUSD schools would get one-third of the revenue from Measure I, equal to an estimated $7 million per year.
In a Board Report prepared for Thursday’s meeting, PUSD’s Chief Business Officer, Dr. Leslie Barnes, said a set of potential funding categories was presented to the Governing Board at a meeting on January 10. The Board then asked PUSD staff to bring back a prioritized list of broad categories for approval at Thursday’s regular meeting.
The Board Report showed staff is now recommending that the Measure J funds be prioritized into the following broad categories:
• Increase or maintain District Reserve Requirements
• Offset deficit spending due to declining enrollment
• Restoration of positions or funding shifts included in the fiscal stabilization plan
• Payment of large one-time expenditures for which the state does not provide funding, i.e. textbook adoptions
• Signature Programs
• Backfill for lost grant funding
• Deferred Maintenance
PUSD schools stand to gain up to $7 million annually from the tax proceeds under Measure J, approximately equivalent to three percent of PUSD’s General Fund budgeted expenditures.
“The influx of these funds will be instrumental in the District’s ability to maintain its required Reserve for Economic Uncertainty for the current year and two subsequent years,” Barnes’ Board Report said.
Also on Thursday, the Board of Education will conduct three public hearings related to matters that PUSD is currently discussing with the labor unions that PUSD teachers and employees are part of: the United Teachers of Pasadena, California School Employees Association, Teamsters Local 911, and the Association of Pasadena School Administrators.
Public input is encouraged during these public hearings, which are scheduled early in the meeting, following the public comment segment beginning at around 5:30 p.m.
Board of Education meetings are held at the Elbie J. Hickambottom Board Room at PUSD, 351 South Hudson Avenue in Pasadena. Thursday’s meeting with a closed session at 4 p.m. and proceeds to the public meeting at 5:30 p.m.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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