District Budget Cut by $3.1 Million : Education: Jobs of three librarians, some programs spared. At end of school year, 49 positions will be eliminated.

In the severest budget slashing ever, high school district trustees have cut $3.1 million from next year’s budget but salvaged some threatened school programs and spared the jobs of three librarians.

Under the spending cuts approved by the board late Tuesday night, the Huntington Beach Union High School District this month will send layoff or reassignment notices to four nurses, six psychologists, at least five school administrators and dozens of other employees.

Thirteen teaching positions will also be deleted, but Supt. David Hagen said he believes that the district can eliminate those jobs through attrition.

In all, at least 49 positions will be eliminated at the end of this school year. Seventeen non-teaching, non-administrative employees--including photocopy clerks, media technicians and receiving clerks--will be laid off.

Officials say the school district’s latest round of cuts is the most severe in its history. Including Tuesday’s reductions, the district has slashed $32 million from its annual budget since 1978, including $20.7 million cut in the last seven years.

Most of the reductions in past years have been caused by a severe enrollment plunge. That decline reversed this year. But the cuts were still needed to offset an existing deficit and to cover increased costs next year that will not be paid for by state funding.

In a last-minute maneuver late Tuesday night, the board saved three librarians whose jobs were on the fiscal chopping block.

Hagen had recommended that three librarians be cut and that the remaining three each divide their time between two schools. Instead, the librarians at each of the district’s six regular high schools will spend half of their workday in the library and the other half as classroom teachers, enabling all of them to remain at their posts next year.

Trustees also scaled back a Hagen proposal to limit the number of classes that students may take. They eliminated a recommendation that would have prohibited students from enrolling in seven classes in one semester and would have required juniors and seniors to acquire administrative approval to take more than five courses.

To offset those changes, the board agreed to slash $120,000 from the district office’s management budget. That move drew a round of applause from the audience.

Hagen on Wednesday began discussing with his staff where those cuts will be made. He is expected to announce specific reductions by the end of the week.

The board, however, adopted the remainder of the class-limitation proposal, which will eliminate 7 1/2 of the teaching jobs, saving $400,000 per year.

Students who fail courses will be mandated to retake those classes during summer school or the independent study program rather than during the regular school year.

Also, students will no longer receive credit for many athletic periods, freeing up coaches to teach in the classroom that period.

Although trustees said they believe they adopted a package less severe than Hagen’s original proposal, they emphasized near the end of Tuesday’s meeting that they deeply regretted making the cuts.

“This is devastating for me,” said Trustee Charmayne Bohman, fighting back tears throughout a lengthy speech. “My dream when I came to this board was not only to keep the quality education system that this district had, but to improve it. And tonight I see that crumbling away.”

Trustee Bonnie Bruce called this year’s cuts “the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make.” She said she is concerned that the reductions, by pitting employees against each other in fighting for their jobs, has divided a district that had been relatively harmonious.

Among other cuts in the package the board approved, $200,000 will be slashed from after-school activities, such as band, drama, and non-varsity sports. A committee of district officials on March 24 will recommend to the board where those cuts should be made.