BREA : School Budget Will Pay For New Computers

The $23-million budget approved this week by the Brea Olinda Unified School District trustees includes funds for elementary school computers and a part-time principal at Olinda Elementary School.

Although costs will be higher in some areas for the 1995-96 school year, officials said, the district’s total revenue is expected to increase by about $480,000 above last year’s through additional student and day-care funding, as well as cost-of-living increases from the state.

Some added expenses the district will incur this year are $618,000 to pay an outstanding debt, $316,000 for an anticipated increase in health-care premiums for employees and a $105,000 increase in utility fees.

The school district has also budgeted about $600,000 to cover possible losses from Orange County’s collapsed investment pool, but it could later recover that sum, officials said.

Also included in the budget, which was approved by a unanimous vote Monday, are up to $55,000 for a part-time principal at Olinda Elementary School, about $36,000 for elementary school computers and $61,000 for a districtwide curriculum coordinator.

The district plans to offset some of the added expenses by cutting spending for equipment and furniture and by drawing from reserve funds. The district now has about $3.3 million in reserves, officials said, and projects having about $3 million at the end of the 1995-96 year.