By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

Students only got out of school last week, but preparation is already under way for the 2013-14 Benicia Unified School District budget, which will be the focus Thursday of a special Board of Trustees meeting.

Affecting the outlook this year, as it does every year, is uncertainty at the state level, as well as falling district enrollment.

Among the many factors affecting the district’s budget this year is about $5 million in Education Protection Account funds, new revenues generated from the passage last November of Proposition 30, Chief Business Official Tim Rahill wrote in a report to the board.

Prop. 30 temporarily increased the state’s sales tax rate for all taxpayers and the personal income tax rates for upper-income taxpayers.

Rahill will ask the board to consider a resolution Thursday to the effect that the money — $5,055,678 — will be spent on teacher salaries and benefits. The declaration is mandated by Prop. 30, which “requires all districts, counties, and charter schools to report on their websites an accounting of how much money was received from the EPA and how that money was spent,” Rahill wrote.

Rahill will also present a draft of the 2013-14 budget information for trustees to review.

The draft of the 2013-14 budget presented to the board uses information from Gov. Jerry Brown’s May Revise and such budget assumptions such as:

• Under current law the state budget provides a cost-of-living adjustment of 1.565 percent for 2013-14, which is reduced by an estimated ongoing state deficit factor.

• The district is experiencing a decrease in student enrollment and the corresponding decrease in Average Daily Attendance (ADA) of 23 students which “reduces state funding by about $400,000,” Rahill wrote.

• The district will continue to take advantage of “categorical flexibility” which has allowed BUSD to “flex” or transfer funds from old, restricted categorical funds to the unrestricted general fund for use in covering the general operations of the district. This is an annual ongoing amount of $3 million, Rahill wrote.

• He wrote that BUSD will operate at a loss of $1.8 million for the 2013-14 fiscal year; that loss “is being covered by one-time reserves for the 2013-14 school year.”

• The $1.8 million includes the salary costs of the negotiations with district employee unions, Rahill wrote.

“Based upon this operating loss and the current information available from the May Revise Budget Workshop, the 2013-14 budget for BUSD still includes the state’s 3-percent reserve for economic uncertainties and the additional Board Policy Reserve,” which amounts to an additional 4-percent reserve, Rahill wrote.

The final 2013-14 budget will be reviewed for approval at the next school board meeting June 20.

Once the state approves BUSD’s 2013-14 budget, the impact on the district will be presented to the board at the following meeting.

Also Thursday, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Michael Gardner will ask the board to approve the new job description for assistant superintendent of educational services.

The current description was called “outdated and insufficient” in describing the skills required for the position.

“There currently is no specific Assistant Superintendent Educational Services job description,” Gardner wrote. “This job description would update the director of curriculum and instruction job that BUSD currently hires under and is considerably more detailed toward the duties required of an assistant superintendent of educational services.”

Superintendent Janice Adams said Tuesday the current director of curriculum and instruction, Dr. Karen Dubrule, is “leaving the district.”