Reed, who also serves as the chief business official, said the district will be able to balance its budget for the next two years by dipping into its reserves, but come 2012-13, that may not be the case.
The district has lost $570 in per-student funding for next year since the governor signed a proposal that reduces "basic aid" districts' categorical funding, which are special programs like adult education, class size reduction and home-to-school transportation, Reed said Friday afternoon.
Basic aid districts rely on revenue from local property taxes to fund the mandated per-student amount. A district's property taxes have to meet or exceed the per-student amount to become basic aid.
Districts that aren't basic aid are dubbed "revenue limit" districts, where the local property tax isn't enough to meet the per-student amount, so the state fills the gap.
Revenue limit districts have felt the brunt of the budget cuts, so the state took a "fair share" reduction from basic aid districts so they can share in the pain, said Rick Pratt, assistant executive director of the California School Boards Assn.
Newport-Mesa's funding has exceeded the amount revenue limit districts have received per student over the last 12 years and has received about $2,100 more per student this year.
So far, that is what the district knows, Reed said. What could come next depends on what happens in Sacramento.
Trying to plan the district's financial future has been a seven-day-a-week job for Reed, who constantly checks in on budget updates with Sacramento officials, consultants, colleagues and websites.
"There is no downtime trying to figure this out," he said.
