WESTMINSTER : School Board Gets Budget Cut Options

Faced with a projected deficit of more than $532,000 for the coming fiscal year, the Westminster School District board accepted a report last week detailing the programs and positions it may need to cut.

Supt. Gail Wickstrom, who compiled the report, told the board: “It truly kills my soul . . . to write this list. It is a tragedy that any education program in California should be cut, but it is our fiscal responsibility to balance the budget.”

The report suggests three levels of cuts, each corresponding to a worsening level of state funding for the district, which has an annual budget of $30 million. The board will decide at its meeting Thursday whether to approve some or all of Wickstrom’s recommendations--and whether to add more.

The first level, projecting a constant level of state funds following a cost-of-living adjustment, recommends reducing payments to employee retirement funds by $225,000.

It also advocates laying off a school nurse, a maintenance worker, a clerical worker and reassigning five reading teachers, as well as eliminating employee support and training programs, for an additional savings of $332,000.

The second level, projecting a 2.5% drop in state funds, includes all of the cutbacks in the first level, plus cutting two music teachers, one administrator, a psychologist and a maintenance worker, for a total savings of $917,000.

The third level, projecting a 5% drop, includes all the cuts in the first and second levels, in addition to spending next year’s state lottery money a year ahead of time. It would save a total of $1.35 million, school officials estimate.

Wickstrom said she tried to recommend cuts that would affect students as little as possible and that would be borne equally by staff, faculty and administration.

But Gaye Shin, president of the Westminster Teachers’ Assn., decried the potential loss of a school nurse position, saying that for many students, the nurse is their primary source of health care. And she charged that the plan favors administrators by targeting only teachers and staff in the first level of cuts.