Board of Ed sets budget

The Long Beach Board of Education voted to adopt a budget of $131.9 million for the 2015-16 school year, along with a tax levy of $99 million, at its April 14 board meeting. The public will vote on the measure on May 19.

The spending plan is 1.48 percent larger than the current budget — and larger than either of the initial two versions presented by Chief Operating Officer Michael DeVito in February. The tax levy would increase by 3.19 percent, its limit under the state tax cap.

The increase in spending is due in part to the creation of new staff positions as well as a restructuring of administrative jobs, according to Brian Oper, a financial analyst for the district. And the cost of salaries went up by more than DeVito originally estimated. The final draft calls for an additional $1.9 million in salaries, a 2.84 percent increase over the current year. At a budget presentation two months ago, DeVito projected an increase of only 1.83 percent.

At last week’s meeting, he discussed the difficulties of estimating expenses so early. “The budget process goes over a three-month period,” DeVito explained. “We want to start the conversation as early as possible, and it’s a tradeoff. You want to be transparent and start off with a rollover budget, and as it progresses, we get more information. That’s just the nature of it.”

The spending plan includes additional special education teachers, a part-time psychologist, three new English as a New Language positions, arts program instructors, a new fifth-grade elementary teacher, permanent substitutes for the middle and high schools and math and literacy coaches for the elementary schools.

DeVito and Schools Superintendent David Weiss said that the increase in spending and the tax levy were necessary to wean the district off reserve funding and to move closer to long-term financial stability.