CYPRESS : Schools Budget Has Maneuvering Room

The Cypress School District Board of Trustees has approved a 1995-96 budget that allows room for adjustments during the school year, including possibly hiring up to five new teachers.

The trustees, meeting Tuesday night, approved the new budget unanimously. It totals $18.4 million, compared to $17.7 million for the fiscal year ending June 30.

Supt. William Eller said the increased money available in the new budget reflects major cutbacks in district spending and also slightly better funding from the state.

On paper, the budget projects a surplus of $1.2 million by June 30, 1996. But Eller, in an interview, said the year-end surplus will actually be substantially less.

“We haven’t budgeted all the teachers we’re going to need for next year,” Eller said. “While the revenues portray the student attendance, the expenditures don’t yet budget for all the teachers we’d like to have.”

Ideally, he said, the district would be able to hire five new teachers.

Eller said the district will wait until September to hire new teachers. He said the district wants to make certain that Orange County fulfills its pledge to return 90% of the money schools had placed in the county investment pool.

Eller said the district also wants to ascertain that its increased enrollment projections are accurate. The school system is forecasting an increase next year of 50 to 100 new students.

“If we hire new teachers, it would be after the first week of school, around Sept. 15,” he said.