MISSION VIEJO : Schools to Consider Big Cuts in Budget

Saddleback Valley Unified School District, which is poised to cut almost $6 million from its budget, will decide tonight whether to lay off 82 teachers and dismantle a host of programs, including remedial reading and music instruction for elementary school students.

Board members will convene at 7:30 p.m. at district headquarters to consider those changes and a wide range of other measures that could save an estimated $2.9 million, about half of what the district needs to trim from its $100-million budget this year.

Among other things, school officials propose reassigning three administrators and four high school librarians to classroom-related duties. High school libraries would be run by lower-paid library technicians under the direction of assistant principals.

Two of the administrators would be transferred to the district’s special education program, while the third would be assigned to oversee a program to improve children’s health habits.

Scheduled to be dismantled are the remedial reading program and elementary school science and music programs.

The reassignments and layoffs, the third in the district’s 17-year history, are to take effect on July 1. In 1982-83, the district laid off 145 teachers, while in 1984-85 it laid off five.

Teachers with the least seniority will be the first to go. So far, the district has laid off 55 non-teaching employees, saving $1.3 million.

“No district is or should be proud of laying off employees, but unfortunately under state law it is one of the few ways we can trim back our budget,” said Deputy Supt. Ken Anderson. “A lot of these people are just out of college and they are doing a great job for us in the classroom.”

The cuts are necessary, officials say, because of Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposal to slash $2 billion from next year’s state school budget. Some are projecting that the next state budget will have a deficit in excess of $12 billion.

“It looks like we are going to have people out of work,” said Bonnie Chadd , president of the Saddleback Valley Educators Assn., a teachers’ union. “It’s a devastating thing. The board has some very hard decisions, but there are few solutions without changes at the state level.”

Anderson said that if the district adds large numbers of students next fall, combined with the normal number of teacher retirements and resignations, many teachers who were laid off could be rehired in September. During the last several years, the district has hired about 100 teachers each summer to replace those who quit or to handle growing student enrollments.

“But with the slowdown in the economy,” Anderson said, “it’s not clear that many teachers will be leaving or many new students will be moving into the district.”

Neighboring Capistrano Unified earlier this week cut $4.1 million from its budget while laying off only two teachers, an administrator and a clerk. It did that by adding one student to each class, which will allow it to absorb new students without hiring new teachers.

Anderson said the teachers’ union would have to agree to increase Saddleback Valley’s average class size, which varies from grade to grade.

“We’re in the process of negotiating our next contract with the teachers and I can’t say whether we will ask for that, but you can speculate,” Anderson said.