Bolstered by new state education revenue, Palisades Charter High School has substantially increased spending on new infrastructure, academic programs and instructional materials this school year. Administrators and board members expect additional revenue to offset the projected spending growth. According to the school’s approved budget for the 2006-2007 school year, total spending at PaliHi will increase by 15 percent this year to $21.1 million. The total revenue received by the school rose 8 percent to $20.7 million. The school’s surplus fell by 16 percent to $2.6 million. The relocation and construction costs of adding nine new bungalow classrooms account for one of the largest expenditures this year. PaliHi acquired the trailers, which can be used as classrooms, from the Los Angeles Unified School District without cost. But PaliHi has had to pay substantial costs to prepare the trailers for classes. The PaliHi board originally allocated $350,000 for the classrooms in this year’s budget, but an additional $150,000 will likely be needed to furnish the trailers, said Amy Held, executive director, who is overseeing the project. The classrooms are not expected to be ready for use until the beginning of next semester, but they have already started a debate on campus. Some teachers and administrators want to use the classrooms to primarily reduce student-teacher ratios while other faculty and staff want to reduce teacher-traveling. The short supply of classrooms on campus means that several dozen teachers do not have their own classrooms. ‘It’s premature to say how the classrooms are going to impact either. It’s obviously going to positively impact the school,’ said Held. School enrollment is near capacity levels with more than 2,700 students. At a board meeting last week, members suggested that reducing student-teacher ratios would probably not be easily solved until next school year. Spending on instructional material and supplies increased by 46 percent this year to more than $300,000. Classrooms will benefit in the form of new world atlases, updated maps of the solar system and dry erase-boards, for example. PaliHi allocated $200,000 to buy new textbooks. According to Mark Snyder, a counselor and co-chair of the budget committee, the school has spent nearly $1 million over the past three years on the best textbooks. ‘Right now, every kid has the most up-to-date textbooks,’ Snyder said. ‘One of the benefits of becoming financially independent is to put more money back into the classroom. And we want to continue to direct more funds to the classroom.’ The board committed $190,000 in additional teacher salaries to expand PaliHi’s Academic Watch, a three-year-old program that targets low-performing students entering the ninth grade. First-year students that earned less than a ‘B’ in any middle school class are required to participate. Because the program requires teachers to work in the summer and extra hours during the school year, extra funding was needed. Teachers in Academic Watch develop strategies to increase reading comprehension, time management and other study techniques. Currently, 400 students participate in the program, and there is discussion of requiring all of next school year’s first-year class to join Academic Watch. But expanding the program would require significant increases in spending. Renegotiated contracts with food vendors Subway and Domino’s Pizza will reduce the impact of the cafeteria’s losses at Pali. The board’s decision to pay cafeteria workers full-time salaries and benefits has also added large costs to the school’s budget. Last year, the cafeteria lost $280,000 and is expected to lose $200,000 this school year, according to Greg Wood, the school’s chief business officer. PaliHi recently submitted an application for Measure R funds to LAUSD that could bring more than $1 million to the school this year. The District offers funds to schools that serve students who come from highly overcrowded schools. But the exact requirements of meeting Measure R were a source of contention last year when LAUSD rejected PaliHi’s application for $1 million in funding. Nearly 41 percent of PaliHi students come from severely crowded schools, and PaliHi administrators expect that their application will be accepted this year. The school is also applying for more funding from the state in the form of Mandated Costs Reimbursement. After years of not offering schools the funds, the state is now offering to pay schools back for meeting state education requirements. When Pali incurs costs from administering the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE), for example, the school can now be reimbursed. School officials said that $400,000 could return to the school’s coffers if the state approves their application.
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