Assemblyman Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) led a town hall meeting for the Natomas Unified School District community at Inderkum High School on Thursday night where he and Superintendent Bobbie Plough laid out a plan to help the district prevent a state takeover, or “receivership.”

The town hall meeting came on the heels of a prediction made by County Superintendent David Gordon that NUSD would end up with a negative fund balance in the coming years.

If that projection comes true, then the district would lose local control with a state-appointed receiver in place and a disempowered school board.

As the state legislator for the governing district, Pan said he is required to ask the Legislature for a “take-over bill,” which he called a “holding position for right now.” Pan recommended that unions and staff make concessions three years out.

NUSD management and the Natomas Teachers Association have already agreed to a 7.9 percent pay cut for the 2011-2012 school year, and the district is hopeful that classified staff will agree to similar cuts.

In addition, NUSD, like many districts across the state, has responded to the fiscal crisis by working on two budgets of its own – one that hinges on the hope that tax extensions make it on the June ballot and pass, and a second budget that doesn't. Plough said the second budget would reflect a $350 cut per student or, in other words, a 6 percent additional cut.

“If tax extensions pass and we get agreements from (the) teacher’s association and classified for the 2012-2013, we will make it as a district,” she said. “We need to look at cash flow, and we need to maintain it over the next two years.”

Pan said the state Legislature's goal is to pass a budget at the beginning of March in order to get the tax extensions on the ballot in June. While Pan said the Republicans have not been supportive of putting measures like these on the ballot, he said that doesn't mean Democrats won't be able to find two Republicans who would break from their caucus.

“I'm hopeful colleagues on the other side of the aisle will step up and recognize what impact (the state budget) will have on their school districts,” he said. “We're not the only district having challenges.”

Assuming the extensions are put on the ballot, Pan noted the added difficulty of requiring a two-thirds vote.

NUSD is in a unique and more dire situation than most because it is experiencing declining enrollment due to the economy, and because students are leaving the district schools for charters. Plough said that 300 leave per year to charters, and 100-125 leave because of the economy. District-wide, there are 12,000 students; 3,000 of them have opted for charters.

At the meeting, Assembly Appropriations Committee staff member Kimberly Rodriguez said that because the cost in education is “90 percent people,” NUSD will have to suffer further layoffs or get concessions from unions.

“Savings is going to be people,” she said.

According to the district website, there will be a budget workshop on Feb. 23 at 6 p.m. at the education center located at 1901 Arena Blvd.

Monica Stark can be reached at monica.stark@sacramentopress.com