CERRITOS : School Board Submits $69-Million Budget

The ABC Unified School District board approved a $69-million budget Tuesday night that included cuts in student supplies and the elimination of an elementary school counseling program.

The budget was adopted on a 4-3 vote. Critics on the board said some of the $1.8 million in cuts, including a reduction in legal fees and computer services, are likely to be rejected by the Los Angeles County Office of Education. The county has until August to approve the budget.

“We are supporting an unbalanced budget, a budget we know going in will not fly,” board member Robert Hughlett said before voting against the spending plan for the new school year.

In recent months, a dispute over the budget has prompted a heated battle on the school board and resulted in the intervention of the county education office. In April, the county ordered the district to trim the budget and appointed a fiscal adviser to supervise the process.

County officials also placed a new teachers contract on hold until ABC officials could show that the district can pay for it.

School board President Cecy Groom said the district has complied with the county order and intends to enforce the contract. Groom said the district no longer needs the services of county-appointed fiscal adviser Wes Bosson and has asked its attorney to draft a letter to the state Department of Education demanding that the county remove him.

Bosson, however, said the school board has no authority to remove him. He said he would continue supervising the finances of the district until he is removed by county officials.