Saddleback District OKs the Layoff of 82 Teachers : Education: Action is expected to cause dismantling of remedial reading courses and elementary science and music instruction.

Despite the pleas of parents and students, the Saddleback Valley Unified School District board voted unanimously Wednesday to lay off 82 teachers, which will likely trigger the dismantling of remedial reading courses as well as science and music instruction for grade-schoolers.

The board’s action represented one of the first large-scale teacher layoffs to be approved in Orange County since Gov. Pete Wilson announced plans to cut $2 billion from the state’s education budget. Other cost reduction measures are being contemplated in other county school districts.

In addition, 19 Saddleback Valley administrators, librarians and counselors will be reassigned to the classroom under the employee reduction package that officials say will trim $2.9 million from the district’s $100-million budget for the next school year. The layoffs and the reassignments will take effect July 1.

“The board has been very concerned about the kinds of cuts and the depth of cuts we are having to make,” said Board President R. Kent Hann. “But we are charged with the fiduciary business of this school district, and we are all committed to seeing that it will not go bankrupt. . . . If we make the wrong decisions, that could happen.”

The governor’s projected cuts in education funds could force Saddleback Valley to ultimately slash $6 million from its budget, officials say. Already, 55 non-teaching employees such as secretaries, custodians and food service workers, have been laid off at a savings of $1.3 million.

Countywide, about 500 educators face the possible loss of their jobs as their school districts grapple with budget shortfalls. Among the hardest hit is Santa Ana Unified, which plans to cut $13.2 million from its budget and lay off at least 200 employees.

Elsewhere, Capistrano Unified School District cut $4.1 million from its budget this week when its trustees voted to lay off four employees, raise its average class size by one and dismantle and trim several programs. Placentia Unified is facing cuts of $9 million and has sent preliminary layoff notices, which are not final, to 141 employees.

During Wednesday’s board meeting, more than 60 teachers, parents and students crowded into a portion of the board room reserved for the public. Most were upset by the reductions and their possible impact on counseling and music courses.

Ginny Cutcher, a clerk in the Serrano Intermediate School counseling office and a parent with children in district schools, said she is opposed to cuts in the counseling office.

“The people who are coming to talk to the counselors are talking about suicide attempts, drugs and the gang problem,” Cutcher told the board. “It’s not the petty problems of adolescence. We are talking big-time stuff.”

Cutcher is not affected by the layoffs.

Stephen Foster, a 15-year-old freshman in the marching band at Mission Viejo High School, said if the board cuts music instruction in the elementary schools, it will eventually kill high school band activities.

“If students are not introduced to music at a young age, if they are not into music before junior high,” Foster said, “the high school music programs in this district will eventually decline and decline very rapidly.”

The programs in question were not officially cut by the board’s vote Wednesday. But the decision authorized the district to send layoff and reassignment notices to teachers and administrators in those programs.

Ken Anderson, the deputy superintendent who coordinated the cuts, said the decisions that could adversely affect remedial reading and elementary science and music programs were difficult. Although the courses helped students, the district ultimately concluded that they were luxuries.

“There were many discussions between the superintendent’s cabinet, the staff and the Board of Education regarding which programs should be cut back,” he said. “What we kept in mind is our No. 1 objective, which is to preserve the classroom teaching program and make our cuts in support programs.”

Most of the teachers from the programs that could be dismantled have been with the district a number of years and will be reassigned to regular classrooms. The teachers to be laid off are classroom instructors with little seniority, Anderson said.

The elementary science program, which employs 19 teachers, provides students with two 50-minute periods of hands-on science a week. It costs the district about $545,000 a year.

“Students will no longer be taught by specialists--people who have an expertise and love of science,” Anderson said. “Not all of our teachers have that expertise to feel comfortable doing experiments, although some do.”

The Reading Enrichment and Development program is designed to help students from first grade through high school who are below average in reading skills, said Chuck Prince, the principal of De Portola Elementary School. Its budget was $556,000 a year.

Prince said that students with the lowest reading ability will still receive individual help, however.

Elimination of the specialized music, band and choir programs at the district’s elementary schools could save the district another $516,000 annually, according to school officials.

Under the district’s plan, high school libraries will be run by lower-paid technicians directed by the schools’ vice principals at a savings of $100,000 a year.

Sandra Heidenrich, the district’s head librarian, said that without her, coordination of the district’s elementary and intermediate school libraries will be lost. At the high school level, losing the librarians will make it more difficult for students to research term papers, Heidenrich added.

“Someone with a degree in library science, they have the expertise to answer complex research questions,” she said. “If a kid wants to know where to find information on Renaissance art or the latest medical developments on AIDS or clothing of a certain period or some other nitty-gritty question, it’s library scientists who can help.”

At the intermediate and high school levels, the decrease in guidance counselors will affect students trying to get into college and children who are having family or personal problems, said Carol Lerman, the district’s chief guidance specialist.

College-bound “students are going to have to depend more on publications and parents are going to have to take more responsibility for getting their children qualified and eligible for scholarships,” Lerman said.

Because of the state budget crisis, several Orange County school districts are facing similar cuts and about 500 educators could lose their jobs.

Some examples:

Capistrano Unified School District cut $4.1 million when its trustees this week voted to lay off four employees, raise its average class size by one and dismantle and trim several programs.

Santa Ana Unified is making plans to cut $13.2 million from its budget and lay off at least 200 employees.

Placentia Unified has is facing cuts of $9 million and has sent layoff notices to 141 employees.

Irvine Unified is going to its voters in June, asking them to approve a parcel tax that would add $35 to the annual property tax of each landowner and raise $1.4 million annually for the district.