By KATHERINE ROSENBERG, Editor

LUCERNE VALLEY - The financial viability of the Lucerne Valley Unified School District remains uncertain after a Monday night meeting where the message was simple: it all comes down to cold, hard cash — $1 million to be exact.

Superintendent Mike Noga and county Fiscal Advisor Michelle McClowry addressed a crowd of about 75 concerned community members in the high school’s auditorium in an effort to provide transparency and open communication lines after all LVUSD teachers were given preliminary layoff notices two weeks ago, as reported by the Leader.

The idea was to dispel rumors and to work together to come up with budgetary solutions that will save the district as well as keep as many teachers on staff as possible. But news of the financial situation came out as grim, to say the least.

“This is not something that is going to happen quickly and it’s not something that’s going to be easy to resolve,” said McClowry. “In the state of California it’s not going to get better for many, many years.”

McClowry, whose salary is being paid by the county as she was brought in to address the district’s financial crisis, said that more than 90 percent of the operating budget goes to salary and benefits and that those cuts will have to be made.

“You need to make a decision and we should make it tonight: Do you want to lose the district or do you want to keep it? And if you want to keep it we will have to cut $1 million. And it will take pain, blood, sweat and tears,” McClowry said.

Still, with the resolve of the LVUSD’s board and teachers, there is now much more confidence that the district will remain in tact in future years if people continue to work together and take responsibility for doing their part.

Board member Tom Courtney said that he applauds the work of a group of teachers who are suggesting early retirement for some of the long-standing educators as a means to diminish salary rollbacks.

“The more cuts we can find before we resort to the rollbacks, the lower the percentage that rollback will have to be. But I am confident that some reduction in salary is inevitable.”

McClowry said that simply reducing everyone’s salary by one percent would only save the district $45,000, no where near the gap in funding they need to recuperate.

Part of the problem with the deficit is that the district is already allocating significant funds to repay a loan taken out by the school board for busses and for the construction of several buildings as well as upkeep. That loan was not voted on by the public and is for roughly $6.5 million to be paid back over about 30 years.

Some community members suggested that allowing the state to take over the district could be beneficial, but McClowry said that such action would take away the chance for local spending decisions and would be even more costly, because the state doesn’t have the money either.

As a community of volunteers, most in attendance were there to suggest where money can be raised, or cut from the budget — as well as to voice strong opinions against allowing children to be bussed to Apple Valley which equates to a three hour trip each day. Unfortunately — for a myriad of reasons — most were implausible, but included going to a four-day week, changing the annual schedule to a colder time of year, implementing a pay-for-transportation bus system and using students to do the landscaping as part of vocational training classes.

According to Noga, the California Education Code essentially says that “classified” employees such as bus drivers and landscapers can not have their employment taken away. It seems, however, that the educators at the district don’t have the same protection.

In response to those concerns and the fact that the state has been delinquent in fronting money used to pay teachers’ salaries, audience member Jo Richards was wildly applauded after saying: “This is just a thought, but if the state is screwing us over, why are we paying so much attention to their rules?”

Noga and McClowry’s ideas on the other hand included cutting arts and extracurricular activities, restructuring the benefit plan to make it more cost-effective, salary rollbacks and increasing class sizes to operate with fewer teachers. There was also a discussion of voting in a parcel tax for area landowners.