IRVINE : School Budget Cut Proposals Protested

Parents, students and teachers turned up in droves at a Thursday budget hearing to protest proposed cuts to the school district’s nationally recognized fine arts program.

The cuts and others are due to a loss of up to $3 million in state funds from the Irvine Unified School District’s $84-million annual budget, said David Brown, district superintendent.

“We can’t afford to provide our students with less than they need to succeed in school,” said Annie Chang, a 14-year-old violinist. “We cannot afford to reduce funds for music education in our elementary schools.” Items on the proposed list of cuts, compiled by a budget task force, are not required under teacher contracts or by state law, said Barbara Dresel, a task force member and president of the Irvine Teachers Assn.

In addition to fine arts, these include business services, district office operations, transportation, athletic programs, food services and extracurricular activities.

“We seem to have an agreement from all sectors of the task force that we want to keep the cuts away from the classroom and everyday programs,” Dresel said.

Sizable fine arts budget cuts are proposed only at the elementary school level.

If approved, they would mean that instrumental music lessons held twice a week would be offered once a week and visual arts lessons given six times a year would only be given three times per year, said Jack Vaughn, coordinator of the fine arts program.

The task force is scheduled to present its recommendations for cuts from the overall list to the school board on May 15. A special board meeting on the reduced list is scheduled for May 21.