ORANGE : School District Plans to Cut 59 Positions

The Orange Unified School District’s plan to trim $3.3 million from its $103-million budget will include cutting 59 positions within six months, district officials said this week.

The proposal would eliminate 22 certificated positions, including some school administrators and possibly some teachers, to save $1.19 million. The district also proposes eliminating eight secondary school clerk positions, some district staff, maintenance and operations personnel, and other classified management positions, saving $1.3 million. About 15 of these spots are vacant, district officials said.

Layoffs for classified employees will begin within a month if the plan is approved Thursday night. Layoffs of certificated personnel, teachers and school administrators would begin July 1.

The district also plans to cut $250,000 from the budget for such classes as special education and English as a second language, and $400,000 from the budget that pays for student transportation. In addition, the proposal calls for borrowing $1 million from a special reserve fund to be used for general operating expenses, said board member Jeff Holstien, head of the budget subcommittee.

If the plan is approved by the board Thursday night, district officials say, the combination of staff and program cuts should mean a balanced budget by the end of the 1992 school year.

“We started financially behind every other district in the county this year,” said district Supt. Norman C. Guith.

“If all personnel had been hired and the budget adopted without changes, we wouldn’t have made our May and June payroll and we would have spent all our reserves. This program will bring us to financial stability.”

However, district officials warned that the $3.3 million in cuts were necessary before the announcement of drastic budget reductions at the state level, meaning more cuts could be in store.

“We have no money and we have nowhere to go for it,” said Richard L. Donahue, assistant superintendent for business services. Donahue blamed the district budget crisis on a variety of factors. Among them were the district’s miscalculation of enrollment by about 250 students, meaning a shortfall of $1.5 million in revenue, the loss of about $1.1 million in lottery funds and a $1-million reduction in state funds.

Becky Mayers, union representative for Local 67 of the California School Employees Assn., said the budget reductions were “not as drastic as the rumors.” In November, district administrators moved to lay off 79 classified workers, a proposal that would have saved the district $1.2 million in one year.

She said most of the classified cuts would come through current vacancies and attrition.

Steve McDonald, executive director of the Orange Unified Education Assn., said that “personnel reductions are not the proper solution to the district’s problems.” In addition to the 22 certificated positions to be cut, 35 resource teachers were laid off in September, McDonald said.

Parents at a Monday night meeting where the proposed cuts were disclosed urged the board not to scale back school programs and to try to generate more income rather than make further cuts.

The board will consider recommendations from district employees and the public before voting on the plan at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the district office, 370 N. Glassell St.