Public school districts throughout Los Angeles are preparing to cut their budgets or dip into reserves to offset rising energy bills.
While help from the state remains a possibility, districts are expecting the power crisis to drain even more dollars from their budgets in the next school year.
The Long Beach Unified School District expects its annual utility expenditures to increase by $2 million in the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1. The money will come out of the district’s reserves, said spokesman Dick Van Der Laan.
“The big challenge, of course, is electricity prices, but also gas prices are up,” he said.
An informal survey recently conducted by the L.A. County Office of Education found that districts in the L.A. area are projecting a 35 percent increase in energy costs.
While Long Beach, home to nearly 95,000 students, can absorb the expense this year, Van Der Laan said he is concerned about the future.
“Everyone has seen what has happened to the state’s surplus being consumed rapidly by the increasing cost of energy,” he said. “If you use educational funds for increased energy costs and consume reserves, that leaves less available for education.”
Smaller districts expect to be hit even harder by rising power costs.
After seeing its energy bill jump 52 percent in the past few months, the Walnut Valley Unified School District which serves close to 15,000 students in the San Gabriel Valley cities of Walnut, Diamond Bar and West Covina recently established a freeze on hiring and overtime hours.
“Something has to be cut. Something has to give,” said Michael Armijo, a spokesman for the Walnut Valley district.
Based on the rate structure adopted by the California Public Utilities Commission earlier this month, the state Department of Education is projecting small schools will see a 35 percent increase in energy rates, while medium-sized campuses will experience an 80 percent jump and large schools a rise of 115 percent.
“School districts are trying to scramble because they don’t want to have to cut into their instructional program,” said Duwayne Brooks, the department’s director of school facilities planning.
But an anticipated 40 percent rise in power rates for the Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District could mean smaller raises for teachers and other employees, who began renegotiating compensation there last week.
Don Banderas, superintendent of the 2,000-student district in north L.A. County, said he expects energy costs to go up by about $90,000 in the coming fiscal year.
“That’s a big deal for us,” he said. “To give our teachers a 1 percent raise, for instance, that costs me $53,000.”
There are several bills pending in the state Legislature that could help schools get through the power crunch by providing everything from conservation rebates to allowing schools to opt out of interruptible-service programs, Brooks said.
Like many districts, the Hermosa Beach City School District is trying to cope with rising rates by cutting energy use.
But Angela Jones, business manager for this district of fewer than 1,000 students, said conservation isn’t enough to keep Hermosa Beach City’s power bill from growing.
“It would be almost like we would have to shut down to keep (the power bill from rising),” she said.
To cope with an estimated 34 percent jump in energy expenses this coming year, the district is considering switching to a 10-hour, four-day workweek this summer.
Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest in the nation, is fortunate in that most of its 932 sites are served by the L.A. Department of Water and Power, which has been relatively unaffected by the energy crisis.
Many districts will have to wait until the state’s 2001-02 budget is adopted to get a better idea of how the crisis will further affect their schools, Brooks said.
