SIMI VALLEY : School Panel Studies $626,500 in Grants

Simi Valley school officials will be asked tonight to restore $626,500 of the $8 million they planned to cut from the district’s budget to fund two assistant principal positions, supplies and noontime supervisors, but no additional teachers.

However, Supt. John W. Duncan said Monday that about $300,000 in overpaid teachers’ salaries could be used to hire up to 10 of the 32 temporary teachers the board voted last month to lay off on July 1. A recent in-house audit showed the districts’ 750 teachers were overpaid $200 to $400 during the 1989-1990 school year, he said.

“It’s a windfall to the general fund that could be used to restore more teachers,” Duncan said.

But teachers’ union officials were not pleased, even though they admitted more teachers could keep their jobs as a result of the error.

“I’m extremely upset by the error. It’s bad that it happened, and we need to see why we didn’t catch it,” said Ronald Myren, representative of the Simi Valley Educators Assn. “We have no agreement with the district on this issue.”

The district will consider various methods of repayment, including payroll deductions over a five-month period, Duncan said.

“We have to get it back, because if we don’t, it would be a gift of public funds,” said board member Helen Beebe. “The teachers are already upset at so many things, there’s going to be no great delight in paying back money.”

Myren said Duncan informed him of the error during a meeting late Friday afternoon. According to a preliminary legal opinion obtained by the union, the school district must allow teachers to repay the money over a 36-month period and cannot deduct it from their paychecks. He said he will be talking to another attorney before tonight’s meeting.

“It’s a mistake that was made a year ago, and now the district is giving us three days to come up with an answer. The teachers know nothing of this. It puts us in a tight spot,” Myren said.

Officials have been grappling with an $8-million shortfall in the $69.9-million budget for 1990-91 that prompted them to lay off 32 temporary and 28 clerical and service employees, including five nurses. They also reassigned dozens of administrators to lower-level positions with reduced salaries, cut back purchases of instructional materials and froze hiring and travel expenses.

Tonight, school officials will consider relieving some of the financial pressure with $626,500 in grant funds. However, money is intended for specific purposes and cannot be used for teachers’ or nurses’ salaries, Duncan said.

It is proposed that an assistant principal position at both Garden Grove and Berylwood Elementary schools be financed with $115,000 in grant money; a total of $366,000 be spent for two educational consultants, a special projects coordinator, a vocational technician and a student welfare-attendance assistant; $45,000 for district supplies; $40,000 for districtwide maintenance supplies; $30,000 for school supplies; $20,500 for noon duty supervisors at elementary schools; $5,000 for a classified in-service day, and $5,000 for transportation of Career Academy students, according to a report by Duncan.