HUNTINGTON BEACH : Trustees to Refund Money to District

Four Ocean View School District board members and a former trustee are being asked to reimburse the district for up to $6,000 because they were overpaid for as long as 22 months.

Because district officials overlooked a 2-year-old salary cap for school board members adopted by the Legislature in 1988, Supt. Monte McMurray this week asked trustees and former member Debra Leinweber to refund the overpayments they received since Jan. 1, 1989.

Trustee Elizabeth A. Spurlock, who has declined to accept any compensation since joining the board in January, is the only member not required to refund any money.

Other board members, whose salaries will immediately be rolled back from $300 to $240 monthly, agreed to reimburse the district.

The $6,000 sought by the district will be deposited into the general fund, McMurray said.

Ocean View officials discovered the overpayments during an ongoing review of district bylaws. The state payment limit, which became effective at the start of 1989, set maximum salary levels for trustees ranging from $60 to $2,000 monthly, depending on the district’s enrollment.

Since 1985, Ocean View board members have been offered $300 compensation for each month in which they attended every meeting. But, based on the district’s enrollment the past two years, which averaged about 8,400, trustees should have been paid no more than $240 per month.

Board President Charles Osterlund, who said he has attended every meeting the past two years, will repay the full amount of $1,320.

Trustees Janet Garrick, Carolyn Hunt and Sheila Marcus, each of whom missed some meetings since 1989, will pay slightly less. And Leinweber, who resigned from the board in December, 1989, will be billed $720, assuming she attended every meeting. District officials are still tabulating the amount each member owes, McMurray said.