FALLBROOK —- Educators approved $600,000 in budget cuts during a 15-minute meeting Monday night in Fallbrook, voting to eliminate a popular shuttle service that runs between campuses near downtown Fallbrook and to cut corners elsewhere.

In addition to the $600,000 in cuts approved Monday night, about $1.8 million in reserves will be used to cover an approximately $2.4 million shortfall.

The Fallbrook Union Elementary School District governing board meeting was remarkably short, with only a handful of items on the agenda and little discussion of the much-publicized elimination of shuttle services.

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Eleven employees of the Redwood City School District could lose their jobs if the state’s multibillion-dollar budget deficit hits local schools as hard as officials fear.

The 8,000-student district, already struggling with its own shortfall, faces a $6 million loss from its general fund under the education cuts Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed in January, according to a district budget analysis released last week.

Among the 11 full-time district employees on the chopping block are teachers, custodians, special education instructors and nurses. District officials emphasize they will have a better picture when Schwarzenegger releases his revised budget proposal, possibly next week. The district employs 1,100 to 1,200 people, officials say.

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Imagine trying to plan your budget for next month without knowing what your paycheck will look like. That’s the situation California schools find themselves in most years because of the way the state budget is set up. And this year is worse than usual, because the state’s facing a multi-billion dollar shortfall.

Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed more than four billion dollars in cuts to schools to help fill the gap. So, what’s a school district to do? Marianne Russ examines some of the major challenges with the way California pays for education.

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A sea of numbers has been churning this year since the governor proposed slashing state funding, including education: 10 percent across-the-board cuts, $20 billion state budget deficit, $4.8 billion cut from education, about 20,000 school employees given pink slips, 70 teachers in Kern County may lose their jobs.

But beyond the numbers are the people. The ones who may lose their income and benefits. The ones who will lose a mentor. The ones who will say goodbye to the schools and students they have grown to love. The ones who got the call one day in March to come to the principal’s office for a fateful talk about a piece of paper that would follow them in the mail. The ones who peeled back the envelope to find the pink slip.

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OAKLAND — Perhaps it’s fitting that a rally against cuts in state education spending would include a homework assignment.The scores of parents, teachers and students who attended the demonstration at the Oakland Unified School District’s administration building left the event with more than an earful of rhetoric. They walked out with a stack of postcards inviting the state’s first lady, Maria Shriver, to visit Oakland — and asking her to persuade her husband, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, to solve the state’s deficit spending problem without shrinking school funding, which makes up nearly half of the overall budget.

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The San Ramon Valley school board has reached a consensus on $1.6 million in budget cuts, but trustees are asking that other items mentioned by the district for the chopping block be brought back for discussion next week.

The district is estimating a budget deficit of nearly $8 million for next year. The district has suggested using reserves for two to three years, which would require cuts next year of $1.5 million to $3 million. School district spokesman Terry Koehne said that the board has not discussed a dollar amount for how much it would like to cut next year.

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LAKE ELSINORE - For years, high school students had to learn about suicide prevention and the dangers of drunken driving and sexually transmitted diseases before they could earn a diploma.

Beginning with the Class of 2002, health class has been a graduation requirement in the Lake Elsinore Unified School District, but it could soon lose its mandatory status.

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LODI - Transportation, class size limits and senior projects are three areas Lodi Unified School District officials are examining for cuts as they ponder the best way to skim $8.2 million off the district’s 2008-09 budget.

A budget advisory committee met Wednesday night to hear public input about what program cuts should be made and what programs must be spared.

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ESCONDIDO —- Escondido’s elementary district trustees officially decided Thursday night to cut hundreds of employee positions, increase kindergarten class sizes and scale back programs to reduce its $14.4 million deficit for next year.

In a 4-1 vote, with Trustee Linda Woods dissenting, board members of the Escondido Union School District agreed to uphold a series of tentative votes cast over the last two months and cut millions of dollars in spending by reducing personnel and programs.

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SAN DIEGO - The San Diego Unified School District voted 3-2 to pink slip 1,000 non-teaching positions on Tuesday. The recommendation before the school board was to eliminate 243 classified positions and reduce 129 other jobs. But officials told NBC 7/39 the number of job cuts affected by the decision would total more than 1,000 positions.

The jobs in jeopardy are non-teaching positions, such as clerical, administration, nurses, janitorial, bus drivers and maintenance. The union that represents the classified workers fought to save as many jobs as possible and brought dozens of its members and parents to address the board.

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