SIMI VALLEY : School Board Votes to Restore 7 Jobs

The Simi Valley Unified School District Board of Education voted Thursday night to use $581,500 in state grants to restore seven positions, including two assistant principals, that the school district had planned to cut from the budget next year.

The money, which comes from lottery reserve funds, surplus property funds and other sources, will finance assistant principal positions at Garden Grove and Berylwood elementary schools. Other positions to be restored include two curriculum consultants, a special projects coordinator and some noontime supervisors.

Supplies for students will also be paid for with the money.

“Things are beginning to look up,” said Helen Beebe, school board president.

Faced with an $8-million budget deficit, the board decided in March to make drastic cuts in the district’s $69.9-million 1990-91 budget by laying off 32 temporary teachers and 28 clerical and service employees, including five nurses. Dozens of administrators were reassigned to lower-level positions with reduced salaries, instructional material purchases were frozen and hiring was halted.

The board had been scheduled to vote on the grant money Tuesday night, but the meeting was continued to Thursday night because of a lengthy agenda and a large audience.

On Tuesday, several parents and students protested the board’s earlier decision to reassign one of two performing arts teachers at Simi Valley High School, a move they said will jeopardize the program.

“There seems to be no accommodation,” said Sid Liberman, whose 10th-grade son, David, is in the program.

Teacher Kirk Jackson said the program will continue without Candi Dawley, who will teach English at Sinaloa Junior High School next year, but that rehearsals will have to be held after school instead of during class.

The board could not take action on that matter because it was not on the agenda.

“It needs to be reviewed, but I don’t know if it will mean reinstatement,” board member Lew Roth said. “There are other programs that are also affected by the budget.”