Santa Ana District Approves Layoffs : Education: More than 100 employees could lose jobs in $13.2-million budget cut. Trustees’ vote follows impassioned protests.

After a long, often emotional hearing attended by more than 300 people, trustees of the Santa Ana Unified School District late Tuesday night approved $13.2 million in cuts from next year’s budget, which could eliminate nearly 200 positions.

The board approved across-the-board cuts in 37 areas, including reductions and layoffs in athletics, bilingual education, music and art.

While some of the 200 eliminated positions under the cuts would be absorbed by increasing class size or through attrition, at least 100 district employees could be laid off, said Don G. Champlin, assistant superintendent of personnel services. Preliminary layoff notices will be delivered by the end of the week.

“This district is my life . . .,” Supt. Rudy M. Castruita said, his voice filled with emotion. “I haven’t slept real well the last month. I have a vested interest in this district, and I’m not about to turn my back on anybody.”

Trustee Audrey Yamagata-Noji said through tears, “It’s difficult for me in my role to think of all the good things this district has done and to try to figure out what to cut.” Yamagata-Noji, who had gone to Sacramento Monday to try to present the district’s case, said of her trip: “There is a lot of callousness towards the problems of the kids in this district.”

More than a dozen of the people who jammed the meeting room at MacArthur Fundamental Intermediate School pleaded with the trustees to reconsider cuts in several areas. Valley High School freshman Isis Orejel, 14, burst into tears as she talked about potential cuts in the music program.

“Being involved in these activities are the only reason some of us wake up in the morning and want to go to school,” she said.

The district’s 1991-92 budget won’t be finalized until late summer, but the cuts had to be approved at Tuesday’s board meeting because the state Education Code requires that school district employees facing possible layoff be notified by March 15.

While preliminary layoff notices have routinely been mailed out in previous years, district officials fear that this year the cuts might actually be made because Gov. Pete Wilson has proposed $2 billion in cuts in school funding.

Under the district’s proposed layoffs, the hardest-hit employees would be bilingual instructional assistants, 84 of whom are slated to receive layoff notices. Since about 28,000 of the district’s 46,000 students have limited English-speaking skills, bilingual aides are considered crucial in Santa Ana.

“The aide is really critical,” said Susan Seager, a bilingual first-grade teacher at Fremont Elementary School. “You have children at a lot of different levels. You use your aide so you can teach in small groups. Although I do speak Spanish, there’s no way my Spanish is on the same level as a native speaker.”

With the cuts, the district would be left with about 300 bilingual aides. Bilingual teachers such as Seager would be the first to lose their aides, since they will still be able to communicate with their students.

“In human terms, it’s going to have a negative impact,” said Rose Marie Fontana, director of the district’s English-as-a-second-language and bilingual programs. “We should be able to cope fairly well, but there is no denying that a lower teacher-pupil ratio is to the benefit of the student.”

In addition to instructional aides, other cuts include the elimination of 23 counselors, 20 library technicians, 16 music teachers, 12 management positions, 12 psychologists, 10 curriculum specialists, 9 speech therapists, 8 nurses, 8 librarians, 7 clerical positions, 5 physical education teachers for handicapped children, a grant writer, a painter and a carpenter.