Cerritos : ABC Nurses, Librarians Hit in $3.5-Million Budget Cut

After a five-hour special meeting Tuesday, the ABC Unified School District Board of Education voted 4 to 3 to cut $3.5 million from next year’s budget.

The cuts will eliminate at least 30 positions, including 12 nurses and six librarians. The jobs will be eliminated by not filling 10 teaching vacancies and not replacing employees who resign or retire. The nurses and librarians will be given the opportunity to teach.

School officials said the cuts are necessary in the 1991-92 budget because of a combination of factors, including drastic cutbacks in state funding and salary raises. The projected budget for next year is an estimated $96 million.

More than 200 people packed the auditorium at Gahr High School to hear the board debate. At least 15 members of the audience spoke against the cuts. Many pleaded with the board to save the librarian positions.

“A librarian is more than a teacher. A librarian is an exponent of learning power,” Bill Stewart, a librarian at Carmelita Junior High School, told the board. “Kids must learn to use the library. Librarians do more than just check out books. If you take the librarians out of the library, you kill the program. This decision will affect more than the budget. It will affect more than 20,000 students while they’re here and after they leave.”

The cuts will leave the 20,000-student system with three librarians.

Board President Robert Hughlett and board members Dean Criss, Catherine Grant and Jim Weisenberger voted for the cuts. Vice President Dixie Primosch and members Sally Morales Havice and Cecy Groom voted no.