SANTA ANA : School Board Will Discuss Budget Cuts

Faced with a $9-million shortfall in its 1992-93 budget because of the state’s fiscal woes, the Santa Ana Unified School District board will meet tonight to consider possible cutbacks, including reductions in staff, school maintenance and insurance benefits for employees.

Administration recommendations include reductions in the number of maintenance workers, curriculum specialists and clerical staff that would save about $483,000.

Other recommendations include cuts in bilingual teaching assistants and reducing the equipment replacement budget, which would save an additional $450,000. The board will also consider reductions in intermediate school athletics and academic competitions, supplies and travel for special education and transportation.

The board will also consider recommendations offered by a 45-member volunteer “Delphi Committee,” which is composed of faculty, staff and parents. In an effort to provide the board with additional cost-cutting ideas, the committee has also compiled suggestions that were not endorsed by the committee as a whole. In that report several members suggested replacing 103 custodians with a privately owned cleaning firm, and one person suggested eliminating 27 counselors.

However, administration officials have not recommended such cuts, and a resolution on tonight’s agenda proposes eliminating only one certificated position--a counselor--as a result of budget trimming.

Don Champlin, assistant superintendent of personnel services, said the counselor would be reassigned as a teacher. Also, as many as 18 classified employees, including maintenance workers and clerical staff, could also be laid off, although some may be shifted to other positions.

Many of the suggestions offered by Delphi committee members mirrored recommendations proposed by district administration, although others, such as eliminating the district’s $60,000 conference budget, were already implemented last year.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at MacArthur Intermediate School, 600 W. Alton Ave., Santa Ana.