The Los Alamitos Unified School District has acknowledged at their most recent meetings that student enrollment could drop significantly in the next few years.
At their most recent meeting, the Los Al Unified Board of Trustees learned that the district could lose as many as 800 students in the next four years, even if the local decline is projected to be less severe than in other parts of the state.
With an ongoing budget of more than $100 million, Assistant Supt. for Business Services Elvia Schnur told the board that while the district was expected to see a decline in students at some levels, increases at the transitional kindergarten level could mitigate the decline.
While the decline seems to be less than expected using current projections, the district expects a significant drop in the next few years.
“So we can expect to see a decline of about 800 students in the next four years,” asked Board Trustee Diana Hill.
“Yes,” the Assistant Supt. said.
School districts across the state receive the bulk of their funding based on various classifications of students enrolled, including $10,025 each per TK-3rd grade student, $10,177 for each 4th- 5th grade student, $10,478 for each 7th and 8th grade student and $12,144 for each high school student.
In addition, the district receives a variety of additional funding for such things as transportation, special education, etc.
During Schnur’s presentation, she provided the board with a detailed look at their financial budget for next year, which she said was only slightly less than the current year.
In addition, District Superintendent Dr. Andrew Pulver told the board that in anticipation of the declining enrollment, more than 40 teachers had taken advantage of a supplemental (early) retirement plan offered by the district.
“As you heard, and as you are well aware, we did offer this year an early supplemental retirement incentive to help us with our declining enrollment,” said Pulver. “We had 40 of our individual employees take advantage of this, so this is a bigger year for retirement than we’ve had in the past,” he said.
“I do think it is important to recognize the numerous employees that have given years of service to us,” the superintendent said, while clicking through a slide show showing photos of the retiring employees, which included their years of service in education, acknowledging that some of those years may not have been with Los Al Unified.
“I’m proud to recognize their years of service from these certificated and classified employees, who worked from our pre-school to our district office, to our elementary and middle schools. we are losing these individuals who have given so much heart and passion to our families and our students,” said Pulver.
“We are proud to recognize the exceptional service these retirees have given to our community,” the superintendent said. “They have been woven into the fabric of our district culture,” he said.
In all, he said the retiring employees had given 1,246 years of service to the profession.