City Coaches Back at Work, Try to Make Ends Meet

When City Section coaches return to school today from summer break, they will face an athletic budget that has been slashed by more than $1 million in keeping with a cost-cutting edict from the Los Angeles school board.

City officials have instituted a wide-ranging set of cutbacks that include the elimination of junior varsity football, a recommended 13% pay cut for coaches and a reduction of the baseball schedule from 17 conference games to 10.

City Section Commissioner Hal Harkness, who proposed the recommendations after meeting with coaches, athletic directors and administrators this summer, emphasized that the cutbacks are for the 1991-92 school year only.

“None of this was done with the idea that this is permanent,” he said. “We have to tighten our belts this year, but we hope our programs will be restored.”

That seems to be a longshot because the Board of Education ordered $241 million in cuts in June and has eliminated more than 800 teaching positions to meet a $33-million budget gap.