School Administrative Cuts Ordered : Education: Board president acts in response to criticism from parents, teachers and lawmakers.

Battered by criticism that the Los Angeles Unified School District is spending too much on administration while schools are reeling from budget cuts, school board President Warren Furutani ordered additional cuts Tuesday in the central office budget and a freeze on some administrative spending.

Furutani said board members have received “hundreds of letters and phone calls” from parents, teachers and elected officials questioning the district’s spending priorities since schools were hit with class size increases and teacher layoffs this summer when the district cut $132 million from school budgets.

He said the freeze will apply to travel for recruiting and conferences, but district lobbyists will still be allowed to go to and from Sacramento. The district has come under fire for spending more than $400,000 on travel last year and appropriating $600,000 for travel this year.

Furutani said perks, such as the chauffeur-driven cars available to board members, have been eliminated. The freeze will halt equipment purchases and any promotions or pay raises for administrators--”any non-school spending that we are not legally required to do,” he said.

“We’ve been getting hammered by the public,” Furutani said. “The concern I have now is restoring the confidence any way we can. Our schools are in the worst shape ever because of the decisions we’ve made. Administrators have to bear the brunt of the burden just like everybody else. Every (administrative) expenditure will be reexamined.”

Furutani said his announcement has the support of a majority of the school board, though only board members Jeff Horton and Julie Korenstein appeared with him at the news conference announcing the spending freeze. Any budget cuts would be subject to board approval.

Mark Slavkin, Barbara Boudreaux and Leticia Quezada could not be reached for comment. Board member Roberta Weintraub said she will support the freeze, though she does not believe the district is top-heavy with administrators.

The school board eventually cut $275 million from the district’s $3.9-billion budget because of a drop in state funding this year, but only 13%--or $35 million--were administrative reductions. Almost half of the cuts came from school spending, and the remaining 38% is to be made up through employee pay and benefit cuts.

In promising more administrative cuts Tuesday, Furutani predicted that the state’s worsening fiscal crisis will lead to even more district cuts before the year is over.

“We need to acknowledge that things are going to get worse before they get better at the state level and we’re going to pay the price,” Furutani said.

“We have got to find more cuts in our central budget and the superintendent is going to have to develop a plan to redistribute some of our resources--whether it’s employees or equipment or whatever--from central offices to the schools to support what’s going on there.”

Weintraub agreed with Furutani that “the PR we’ve been getting has made it almost impossible to defend the administration against cuts.”

In addition to newspaper stories and editorials criticizing administrative spending, the district has felt the heat from a campaign by the teachers’ union to win public support for central office cuts.

The union, which is in the midst of negotiations with the district over proposed employee pay cuts, has sponsored radio and newspaper advertisements and sent flyers home with students urging parents to seek deeper administrative cuts to save money to preserve teachers’ salaries and campus services.

Newspaper advertisements listed the names of 97 administrators who make between $91,000 and $163,000.

“We’re happy to see the district finally take some action to recognize what everyone else has known all along--that their priorities are wrong,” said John Perez, vice president of United Teachers-Los Angeles. “It’s not enough, but it’s a step in the right direction.”

Furutani denied that he acted in response to pressure from the union. “This is a case where everybody has raised the issue of what are we doing about central cuts,” he said. “We have to respond; we just can’t sit back and take the criticism anymore.”

The superintendent has been asked to find additional places to cut spending, and the specific recommendations will be brought to the board within a week.

The district will also take $5 million from its self-insurance fund to set up an early retirement program that will provide bonuses to employees who resign. High-ranking administrators who leave will not be replaced, Furutani said, and teachers who leave will be replaced by lower-paid new teachers, cutting the district’s payroll.

“We’ve got to establish a climate that says it is not business as usual,” Furutani said. “Everyone has to pay the price.”