SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Schools Weigh Plans to Cut $4 Million

The Capistrano Unified School District has announced two plans to cut $4 million from its budget, including proposals to lay off personnel, increase class sizes, cut programs and raise the cost of student lunches.

The first plan to trim the district’s $100-million annual budget calls for adding a student to each class in the district while cutting 21 programs, including field trips, the kindergarten-through-third-grade music program and a remedial reading program. The proposal would mandate higher lunch prices and would increase the distance that students must live from their school to be eligible for busing.

The plan also calls for two assistant principals, a psychologist, a speech pathologist, a science teacher and five music teachers to be reassigned or laid off.

The second plan is similar to the first but would add two students to each class.

Increasing the size of the district’s classes would save money because it would require hiring fewer new teachers next year, when the 26,000-student district is expecting to enroll an additional 1,000 students. Money would also be saved because fewer portable classrooms would have to be leased.

Raising the average class size by one student would save the district $1.8 million annually, according to a district study, while raising it by two would save $3.4 million.

Capistrano’s average class size is one to three students below the average in the county, a district study showed.

The average kindergarten class in the district has 27.1 students, compared to the county average of 29.1 students. Capistrano’s average high school English class has 25.5 students, while the county average is 28.2.

Cuts included in both plans would eliminate the district’s $450,000 outdoor education program for fifth- and sixth-graders, postpone its $200,000 contribution to the state retirement benefit plan and cancel management’s $15,000 annual retreat. Also axed would be a $98,000 contract with the Orange County Department of Education to provide films and a $46,000 academic contest.

The cuts will probably be necessary, administrators say, because of Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposal to trim the state education budget, which, if passed by the Legislature, would result in a $4-million cut in Capistrano’s allocation.

The proposals were presented to the Board of Trustees this week. It plans to make revisions to the plans at its April meetings, with a final vote scheduled for May 6.

“We take no pride in coming to the board and offering budget cuts, but we can defend (each proposal),” Supt. Jerome R. Thornsley said.

Ric Stephenson, president of the Capistrano Unified Education Assn., the teachers union, said his group would prefer that class size not be increased.

“From a classroom teacher’s perspective, every additional student makes a difference in the quality of education,” he said. He could not, however, offer the board any alternative if Wilson’s cuts are enacted.

Trustee Annette B. Gude said she would prefer increasing class size to cutting programs. “If the money comes back, we can always reduce class size,” she said. “But it will be difficult to get programs back once they are eliminated.”