Oak Park Unified School District will receive an estimated $2.2 million in new revenue for the 2015-2016 school year under Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed state budget for education.

Under the proposed budget, the district hopes to use the new funds to address certain needs the district has had over the years.

“We’ve gone through many years of having budget cuts,” Principal Kevin Buchanan said. “This is one of the few times we’ve got additional funding.”

The district will discuss how to allocate the funds, which were calculated based on the projected number of students enrolling next year, in their March board meeting. The school must wait to finalize how to spend everything until June — after the governor’s final budget figures are approved in May.

Nevertheless, there are several items of high priority on the district’s to-do list.

Some of these items include additional counselors at the high school, an increase in custodial and maintenance staff, possible law enforcement on campus for student safety, additional funding for new school supplies and textbooks, average class size reductions and salary increases for teachers, according to Superintendent Dr. Tony Knight.

“Increasing salaries is one of the most important actions we can take because the quality of the teachers and all staff makes the biggest difference in the school experience for students,” Knight said. “It is essential that employees know they are valued and respected as professionals.”

This year’s budget is not larger than that of last year. However, after years of statewide education budget cuts, school districts including OPUSD have seen a much-needed restoration in back to pre-recession years, a welcome prospect for the district.

According to Assistant Superintendent Martin Klauss, two important factors played a role in the turnaround: Californians approved a temporary tax increase in November 2012 to boost the state coffers, and at the same time, the national and state economies began to improve.

“As the state increased its income, there began to be more money that could be allocated to schools,” Klauss said.

However, he warned that the increased funding in recent years might not be as much as it initially appears.

“We know we will have some obligations that we know we have to pay, regardless of what other priorities we may have,” Klauss said.

Such “obligations” include the district’s contribution to the state’s teacher retirement system, known as CalSTERS, as well as contractually obligated “step-and-column” increases to employees, teachers and non-teaching staff salaries and additional special education needs

Taking those items into account will leave the district with only about $1.2 million that can be spent elsewhere, Klauss said.

Though the new revenue will not be able to cover all the district’s costs, the recent budget increase is a good sign.

“It’s exciting to finally be able to build programs again instead of dismantling programs or scrambling to try and protect them,” Klauss said. “It’s just everything doesn’t come back as quickly as one would wish. But it’s all really good news.”