Monitor Named for Deficit-Plagued High School District : Antelope Valley: The move follows discovery of a $4.6-million shortfall. Layoff notices are being readied.

Following the surprise discovery of a $4.6-million deficit on the books of the Antelope Valley Union High School District, Los Angeles County education officials have taken the unprecedented step of appointing an overseer for the district’s finances, it was revealed Thursday.

The district, which by state law must try to recoup the loss by the end of its fiscal year in June, is sending layoff warnings to about 500 employees and bracing for financial cutbacks.

A top official of the district, which has nearly 13,000 students in six schools spread over almost 1,700 square miles, predicted that the deficit could be erased by June 30 without major disruptions to the schools, but county officials offered a bleaker assessment.

“They are in extremely difficult fiscal circumstances,” said Janice Crawford, county office of education director of communications. She said county officials believe that the district will have to make immediate and “serious reductions of programs and personnel.”

As a result, county Supt. of Schools Stuart E. Gothold last month appointed Norman Miller, a former San Luis Obispo County schools official, to monitor the district’s day-to-day operations. Crawford said Los Angeles County has never before taken such a step.

Projection of a $4.6-million deficit, equal to about 10% of the district’s annual budget, surfaced publicly this week, apparently the result of a series of miscalculations by district officials and the district’s former auditing firm, county officials said.

Crawford said the problem began unraveling in January when a newly hired auditing firm discovered that at the start of the fiscal year in July, when school officials believed that they had a $3.2-million surplus, they were actually $900,000 in the red.

It is already too late to lay off teachers in the present school year because state law requires advance notice. However, the district is sending layoff warnings to all 500 of its teachers, counselors and other certificated personnel in case cuts have to be made in the fall.

Meanwhile, those protections do not cover other district personnel such as secretaries, teacher aides, janitors and clerical workers. They could face immediate dismissal under a fiscal recovery plan, which county officials have ordered the district to present by March 19.

Wilda N. Andrejcik, a veteran district board member, predicted that adequate spending cuts can be made without affecting students. “The child in the classroom will not feel any difference,” she said.

However, Andrejcik said district officials are just now beginning to look for specific cuts that can be made in the next 3 1/2 months. Closing schools will not be necessary, nor will eliminating the costly busing program, she predicted.

Crawford blamed the problems on district officials spending more money than they were taking in, not keeping adequate reserves and making costly land purchases, and mistakes by the district’s prior auditing firm.

Meanwhile, as the district’s financial problems began surfacing earlier this year, its two top financial officials departed, which district officials said was unrelated to the problems.

Darlene Hinkel, assistant superintendent of business services, retired; fiscal services director John Joy took a job in Kuwait.

If the district’s finances worsen, the state could take control and appoint a trustee to run the district. Crawford said that is unlikely, at least in the next several months.

The $4.6-million shortfall means that the district will run out of money this spring unless cutbacks are made, Crawford said. By next year, the district needs to gain another $1.5 million to have the 3% budget reserve required by the state.