Budget for 9 Colleges Adopted : Education: The $362.6-million package for the L.A. community schools narrowly averts teacher layoffs and scores of class cancellations.

Los Angeles community college district officials on Wednesday adopted a precariously balanced 1991-92 budget that narrowly averted the teacher layoffs and scores of class cancellations that marred the last school year.

The $362.6-million budget approved by the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees reflects an earlier agreement by employee groups to forgo pay raises and allows for unrestricted reserves of just $1.1 million, or 0.4% of the district’s $270-million general fund.

In other action, the trustees asked staff members to explore admittedly remote alternatives to tearing down half of the only permanent building at Southwest College while proceeding with demolition plans.

The recent discovery of an earthquake fault beneath two sections of the four-part modular structure has precipitated a crisis for the 6,000-student, largely black college founded in the aftermath of the 1965 uprising in Watts.

As for the budget, officials of the nine-college district still must find ways to cover start-up costs of a new Mission College campus in the East San Fernando Valley. The college is $1.4 million short of the promised $3.5 million.

Trustees also must deal soon with continuing losses from cafeteria operations at all campuses, budget officials said. Currently, colleges are expected to cover their part of the deficit, expected to reach as high as $400,000 systemwide this year.

The California Community Colleges chancellor’s office has warned the district to increase its reserves, and local budget officials concede the amount set aside for emergencies this year is “inadequate and may jeopardize our fiscal stability.”

State budget officials, wrestling with their own recession-caused financial problems this year, awarded schools no allowance for increasing costs, nor did they fully cover expected growth in enrollments. Fees for community college students, however, were increased from a maximum of $50 per semester to $60.

Neil Yoneji, vice chancellor for businesses services, said all but three of the colleges finished in the black for the fiscal year that ended June 30 and should not have to reduce class offerings this fall. Southwest, East Los Angeles and Valley will have to find ways to make up for exceeding their budget allotments last year.

Trustees David Lopez-Lee and Kenneth S. Washington said it was unfair to penalize colleges for circumstances that may be beyond their control. But others, including President Julia Li Wu, said the district can no longer afford to bail out individual colleges that run into money troubles.

Officials of the financially pressed district are seeking emergency state funds to put up temporary replacement classrooms and tear down the two affected building sections at Southwest.

State law prohibits construction of new buildings directly over a fault and forbids modifications to existing buildings in such circumstances. Most seismic safety experts believe there is no way to adequately protect a building atop a fault with the potential for ground surface rupture, although structures near a fault can be reinforced against shaking.

While admitting that finding alternatives is a long shot, trustees said they want to explore the possibilities of getting the law changed to allow the building to be reinforced. Other possibilities suggested were moving the affected sections to a safer part of the 80-acre campus or slicing off the affected portions of the sections.

Meanwhile, district officials are proceeding with plans to abandon the two sections, which include most of the campus’ classrooms, as soon as temporary structures can be rented and installed. Officials want to move into the temporary replacements in March and begin demolition in May.

Chancellor Donald G. Phelps said the district is immediately seeking almost $2.6 million from state college construction bond funds and $856,000 from the governor’s emergency fund.