County schools to get $1.7 million for 2003 wildfires
By: PAUL EAKINS - Staff Writer | ∞
SAN DIEGO -- More than three years after wildfires swept through much of San Diego County, the state is reimbursing area schools for losses incurred by the fires, Education Department officials said Wednesday.
Fourteen North County school districts will receive a total of more than $472,000 to pay back revenue lost by schools that closed, officials said. In all of San Diego County, 32 school districts will receive more than $1.7 million as part of a $2.7 million package to aid school districts in San Diego, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.
The state attributed the three-year delay in paying back the districts to tight state budgets in the years following the wildfires. The state budget signed by the governor in June included funding to pay the disaster reimbursement claims.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell announced the reimbursements Wednesday during a press conference at San Diego's Junipero Serra High School, which was one of several San Diego Unified School District campuses forced to close during the fires.
"School districts should not be penalized for disasters," O'Connell said, adding the reimbursements are expected to be immediately available to the districts.
Fifty-one school districts in the three counties had submitted claims to the state for fire-related losses, Education Department officials said. Because the schools have fixed costs even during a disaster and receive money for the federal National School Lunch Program based on attendance, the districts lost funding when they were forced to close during the fires.
The wildfires of October 2003 killed 16 people and destroyed more than 2,400 homes across San Diego County. Classes were canceled at many schools as the fires drew close, and many campuses also were used as emergency shelters for displaced families.
Escondido Union School District, which serves 18,500 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, will receive the most money of any North County school, more than $127,000.
Superintendent Jennifer Walters said that in addition to money lost through the lunch program, the district had many extra expenses in the wake of the fires.
"We had to get maintenance and operations and custodial crews to come in above and beyond to clean up ... the ash that was in every classroom, on every desk," Walters said Wednesday.
The reimbursed money will go into each district's general fund to be used as district officials see fit, Education Department officials said.
Walters said she didn't know how the money would be spent in Escondido Union, but that it possibly could be used to pay as much as a year's expenses for the district's parent notification calling system, which was purchased following the fires. The notification system was "one of the most positive things" to come out of the disaster, Walters said, providing the district with a way to communicate quickly with parents on important school matters and emergencies.
The 23,500-student Vista Unified School District will put the more than $104,000 it will receive back into its school nutrition program, said Pam Hayden, chief financial officer for the district.
She said the reimbursements may come late, but considering the volatility of the state budget and school funding, schools are lucky to get the money at all.
"In all honesty, I don't think anybody was really counting on it a hundred percent," Hayden said.
San Diego Unified will receive the biggest reimbursement among the 51 school districts at more than $764,000.
During Wednesday's press conference, O'Connell presented an oversized, honorary check for more than $1.7 million made out to "San Diego County Schools" to county Superintendent of Schools Randy Ward.
Ward said the money was much needed and well-deserved by the county's schools, which had played an important role during the wildfires.
"At times such as those, when communities are in crisis, families often turn to their schools for shelter and support," Ward said.
-- Contact staff writer Paul Eakins at (760) 740-5420 or peakins@nctimes.com.
Funds earmaked for North County Schools
North County school districts will receive $472,204.04 to reimburse them for financial loss caused by the 2003 wildfires. The funds will be distributed as follows:
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