Southern Kern Unified School District administrators must wait for state budget

ROSAMOND — Southern Kern Unified School District administrators are waiting to see what the 2020-21 state budget will look like, after the Legislature passed a 2020-21 placeholder state budget by the June 15 deadline.

Southern Kern trustees approved an adopted 202021 district budget with a positive certification at the June 10 meeting.

“It was really important to us that we remained positive,” Chief Business Officer Jonathan Barth said.

The district filed a third interim report in May with a positive certification after two years in the red.

Barth said it would have been disheartening and perhaps confusing to the public, if the district filed a 2020-21 budget with a negative certification after the positive certification.

As for the state budget, while the Legislature met its constitutional requirement, the budget, by most accounts, is an unfinished budget with no cuts to education and healthcare.

“I don’t think that’s realistic,” Barth said.

Lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom will now negotiate the estimated $14 billion in cuts the governor proposed in his May revision, to deal with the $54 billion deficit caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

All 47 school districts in Kern County will have a Zoom meeting today with the Kern County Superin

tendent of Schools to go over the budget, Superintendent Barbara Gaines said.

The district has a remaining $1.35 million debt with the Kern County Superintendent of Schools that is expected to be paid off by the end of this calendar year.

The district’s 2020-21 adopted budget is approximately $40 million. It is expected to have a 4.01% general fund reserve for the 2020-21 Fiscal Year. The projected reserve for the 202122 Fiscal Year is 10.26%.

“We’ve tried really hard to do anything we can to keep cost avoidance as far from things that affect kids as possible,” Barth said.

He said the budget reflects a mix of reductions as well as moving forward.