ANAHEIM : School Budget Cut; Positions Eliminated

The Anaheim City School District Board of Trustees this week tentatively approved a $2.5-million budget cut by eliminating teaching positions in music and social studies and laying off more than a dozen non-teaching employees.

Most of the teachers and administrators whose positions were cut will be rerouted to classrooms because enrollment in the 21-school district is expected to increase by 800 students next year.

The board hopes to give a second reading to the budget--which reached over $50 million--by the end of May. A final version is expected by early June, in time for the start of summer session of the year-round school schedule.

The budget is still not fully balanced, and further cuts totaling about $400,000 are likely, school officials said.

“It’s basically a survival budget,’ Supt. Meliton Lopez said. “We’ve been living at the edge for so long that there’s really nothing left to cut.”

Virtually the entire teaching and technical staff of the televised social studies instruction program were eliminated, and all four music teachers’ posts were cut. In all, the district lost 11 certificated positions, including one assistant principal.

In addition, 14 non-teaching positions were lost. Those workers--mostly custodians and maintainence employees--will be laid off once the budget is adopted.

“We’ve already cut so many things,” said Betty Patterson, the school board’s president. “I don’t think there are any frills to cut. Those have long since diminished.”