By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

Chief Business Official Tim Rahill on Thursday outlined a preview of Gov. Jerry Brown’s May Budget Revise and what it may mean for Benicia Unified School District.

Speaking to district trustees, Rahill said, “We’ve got some some information on how that will impact schools, and we’ll find out many more details on Monday when we go to Sacramento for the State budget workshop.”

As far as ongoing funding, he said, the outlook for the financial impact on the district hasn’t changed much.

“The governor is still proposing what he is calling the Local Control Funding Formula, which when you compare to the existing formula, would provide $4 million less to our school district (per year) after it is fully implemented,” Rahill said.

He explained to trustees on May 2 that the proposed funding scheme creates a base grant and augments that grant based on a district’s free and reduced meal counts, families from lower socioeconomic groups and English learners. For Benicia, that is a smaller percentage compared to other districts in the state, Rahill said.

He said the May Revise, if its measures become part of the state budget, would effect one other big change: more state control of expenditures, which could amount to “onerous accountability” in the form of increased external audit scrutiny and accounting restraints.

“So what is being called the Local Control Funding Formula with the May Revise has added significant strings and restraints to school districts,” Rahill said.

The governor is also proposing an additional, one-time fund that would mean about $800,000 for BUSD to implement Common Core standards in English and math, recently adopted by the state.

“Additional revenues have come in to the state of California over the last few months, and the governor has recognized those and translated that to one-time funds to help school districts with the implementation with the new Common Core standards,” Rahill said.

He said the additional funding would go toward training teachers in the new standards. “However, we don’t want to lose track of the bigger picture of the proposed new funding formula, which would take millions of dollars away from our school district, not on a one-time basis but on an ongoing basis, from now until the future when it would be changed.”

Rahill said district staff will continue to work with a coalition of school districts that would be impacted negatively by the new funding proposal, and “we will see if there is anymore information provided Monday in Sacramento.”

The May Revise has been presented to the Legislature for review and discussion, and “they will at some point act upon some sort of state budget, which they are challenged to approve and pass before June 30,” he said.

Rahill said with or without an approved state budget, “We will use the best information available, which we’ll bring back from the state budget workshop on Monday. We’ll use that information,” he said. Should there be a budget approval, he continued, that will be included in the local budget.

In other matters, the meeting opened with a proclamation honoring Stan and Marianne Houston, owners of ABC Music, 739 First St., for their donation of $100,000 over the past five years to the district’s music programs.

“Benicia Unified is fortunate to have many business partners that support our schools,” Superintendent Janice Adams said. “But the support provided by ABC Music stands out as truly exceptional.”

Stan Houston credited Glenn Walp, director of the Benicia Middle School music program, with guiding the couple when they first bought the music store.

“Even though we’re both musicians, we didn’t know anything about the music business,” Houston joked. “Six years later, we don’t know anything about the music business.”

Houston stressed the importance of music in the development of children. “It turns on the other side of the brain, we all know that now. And that’s why all of us here, everyone in this room, has been so instrumental in trying to champion music,” he said.

“It’s not just about playing notes, it’s about teamwork, and it’s about competing with one another, it’s about growing up, it’s about having a sense of self-worth — self-esteem — and turning on the other side of the brain.”

The board will next meet on June 13.