SIMI VALLEY : School District to Cut Activities Budget

The Simi Valley Board of Education has voted to reduce spending on extracurricular activities by $30,000 for the 1990-91 school year, eliminating several assistant coaching positions at the junior and senior high school levels.

Assistant coaches participating in wrestling, swimming, tennis, track, water polo, and speech and drama programs are among those that will be affected by the board’s action, said Allan Jacobs, associate superintendent of instructional and educational services.

The cuts amount to a 10% reduction in the extracurricular activities budget.

The majority of assistant coaches are full-time faculty members who are paid to participate in athletic programs as an extra-duty assignment, Jacobs said.

The cuts, he said, will mean more work for full-time coaches.

“It’s going to make things a lot more difficult with fewer bodies,” he said. “We’re not going to do quite as well” in some programs.

The board unanimously approved the cost-reduction plan at its Tuesday night meeting in another of a series of steps it has taken to offset a projected $8-million budget deficit.

Earlier this week, the board announced it will lay off five of the district’s 10 nurses. The board had previously authorized the layoff of dozens of temporary teachers and clerical employees, who, along with the nurses, will lose their jobs July 1.

A shortage of funds as well as a decline in student enrollment and increased labor costs are the main reasons for the budget deficit, district officials said.