The Santa Barbara School Board approved a 2007-08 final budget of $119.2 million, leaving the district with $4.8 million in cash reserves. Though last year’s total operating budget was about five percent higher, the reserves is far cushier than the spare half-million the District enjoyed in 2006-07. It remains to be seen if the extra money will be used to salvage the elementary music, after-school sports, and other programs gutted by April’s $2.5 million in budget cuts.
