School district budget forecasts black ink next year; long ago library story sees 'flaming youth'

Two diverse topics this week: Welcome news regarding finances in the 34-campus Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District and an interesting vignette from a long ago edition of the Yorba Linda Star.

First is anticipation of solid black ink in the school district budget, after several years of expenses outpacing an income stream that's been supplemented by reserves built up during better economic times, as noted in a report filed with the county schools superintendent by a March 15 deadline.

This year, officials are expecting expenditures to exceed revenues by $4.2 million, lowering overall reserves to $12.1 million. But by the end of the 2015-16 fiscal year, income is predicted to exceed expenses by $1.3 million, with $13.9 million in reserves.

And, to a lesser extent, the trend is expected to continue into 2016-17, with $17,054 more income than outgo, based on revenues and expenditures approaching $231 million each.

The better picture even includes increased pension costs, rising from the current 8.88 percent to 12.58 percent of certificated salaries and from 11.77 percent to 15 percent of classified pay by 2016-17. Salaries are close to 64 percent of this year's nearly $223 million expenditures.

Enrollment is expected to remain steady during the next two years. This year's 25,608 is predicted to dip to 25,467 next year and 25,327 the year after. Average daily attendance, upon which most funding is based, is very close to 97 percent of enrollment.

Second is a front page story in the Yorba Linda Star on Feb. 22, 1929, when the community population was less than 500, as accessed from the history area of the city library's website.

Headlined “Group Formed to Curb Flaming Youth,” the story begins, “A group of citizens has decided it is time to try something besides gentle words as a means of ending frequent disturbances in front of the public library,” then located in a 1916 Olinda Street building.

“Members of the group have begun taking the names of boys who spit tobacco juice on the library windows, who stop their flivvers before the front door and treat the studious people inside to a serenade of automobile horn and exhaust music, who scuffle in the entrance, whistle and yell at persons passing in and out and otherwise make an evening visit to the library an unpleasant experience,” the story continues.

“'Nothing may happen immediately,' said a member of this group, 'but that will not mean we are asleep. It is up to the boys whether we have to act or not. We have laughed off a lot already. If the disturbances near the library continues, a number of flaming youths will have a painful session with the juvenile court soon,'” the story ends.

Sadly, I failed to find a follow-up article, but I enjoyed the reporter's use of “flivver,” a word I first encountered in the original Hardy boys-Nancy Drew books, and later in histories of the 1920s and Harper Lee's “To Kill a Mockingbird.”