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Manteca Adult School maintains status quo for next two years
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The Culinary Arts vocational program, English as a Second Language and GED classes, Independent Study, and others offered by Manteca Unified through the Adult School are safe for now. The district’s Adult Education programs remain status quo – meaning, it will remain the way it is – at least for the next two years, according to the 2013-14 budget approved by the Board of Trustees Tuesday night. The figures show revenue of $162,356,237 against expenses of $170,508,804.

That is one of the few highlights of the coming school year’s budget. It will again be presented to the board for a 45-day revise once the 2013-14 state budget is enacted, so those figures could still change.

The school district was not immune to the effects of the much-maligned federal sequestration which negatively impacted many programs throughout the country. According to the spending plan approved by the trustees, special education in the district will lose 5.2 percent funding as a result of the federal sequestration. However, it is hoped that this funding impact will be lessened by the governor’s proposal to backfill a percentage of the funds. “Adjustments to MUSD’s special education will encroach $8.4 million on the general fund,” staff noted in the report that accompanied the proposed budget.

Staff also noted that “the total impact of the federal sequestration is still not known at this time.”

Budget sequestration, under the U.S. federal legislation, refers to the automatic spending cuts in specific categories as part of the country’s austerity fiscal policy. Originally slated to start taking effect on Jan. 1 this year, the cuts were postponed until March when the law went into effect.

The new funding formula Local Control Funding Factor (LCFF) is expected to impose a dramatic change in how school districts including Manteca Unified will be funded in the future, according to the staff’s report attached to the budget that was approved. The proposed 2013-14 LCFF that was passed by the Legislature has been forwarded to Governor Brown for consideration.

“The impacts of LCFF are still unknown,” MUSD staff cautiously noted in the budget report.

LCFF is expected to address California’s “overly complex, administratively costly, and inequitably distributed school finance system.” It is also hoped to increase “flexibility and accountability at the local level so those closed to the students can make decisions” and thereby reduce state bureaucracy.

The 45-day revise of the budget are expected to reflect the funding factors impacted by the above state and federal rules.