HUNTINGTON BEACH : High School Board to Make Budget Cuts

Huntington Beach Union High School District trustees tonight will consider proposals to close a $3.1 million spending gap--the most severe the district has ever faced, officials said Monday.

Trustees may do some last-minute tinkering with Supt. David Hagen’s recommended spending reductions, but they probably will adopt most of his plan, officials said.

Saying there’s nowhere else to trim expenses, Hagen proposes eliminating 54 jobs and capping the number of classes students may take, among other reductions.

Fifteen teaching positions would be erased, although Hagen said he doubts any teachers would be laid off. He said he expects those jobs will be lost through attrition.

But notices of layoff or reassignment would be delivered to four nurses, three librarians, six psychologists, five administrators an a host of other school employees, he said. At least 17 workers--including media technicians and receiving clerks--would lose their jobs, he said.

District trustees will hold a final public hearing tonight on Hagen’s proposal to bridge a $3.1-million spending gap, after which it will vote on the package. Several hundred parents, students, teachers and other school employees are expected to pack the board room for the 7:30 p.m. meeting.

Because of a prolonged enrollment plunge and the statewide schools funding crisis, the board in the previous six years has slashed $17.6 million from an annual budget that today is about $80 million.

The 14-year enrollment drop finally ended this year. But the district faces an existing $1.6-million deficit and anticipates $1.5 million in increased costs that will not be offset by new state revenues.

Jerry Sullivan, the board’s vice president, said Monday that he expects the board will make some changes before adopting Hagen’s recommended plan, “but not a whole lot. We might satisfy one faction, but we’re not going to satisfy everyone,” he said.

Hagen said the cuts would be the most severe in the school district’s history.

“I sure don’t like doing it,” Sullivan said. “Cutting nurses? That’s terrible. And librarians? Egad, we might as well close the schools.”

At last month’s public hearing on the package, a crowd of more than 300 turned out the decry the planned cuts.

The proposal has outraged many parents and students who fear that after-school programs will be lost and class limitations will make it impossible for many students to enroll in all the courses they need.

The plan has also pitted employees against each other, with each group lobbying for other positions be cut to spare its members’ jobs.

And, having been forced to make spending cuts in each of his previous six years on the board, Sullivan said he has about had enough.

“I’m almost ready to say that if we have to cut again (next year), I’ll resign,” Sullivan said.