Payzant OKs Cuts in Administration : Schools: Superintendent was pressed by trustees to make reductions in the management staff. The board must cut at least $10 million from current budget.

In a hard-won compromise with San Diego city schools trustees, Supt. Tom Payzant will carve almost $2 million out of his administrative budget.

Payzant announced Tuesday that he will eliminate 17 1/2 middle-management positions at the central office, while the school board continued to wrestle with the necessity to eliminate at least $10 million in services.

By forcing Payzant to meet their demands for permanent cuts in the central office, trustees might be able, for the foreseeable future, to save all or part of programs in elementary school music, career counseling, sex, alcohol and drug education and athletics or junior ROTC education.

Payzant had targeted those classroom programs, among other directly student-related services, for elimination or reduction as part of his budget cut proposals, which require a minimum $10 million slash that could become as much as $15 million depending on how large the state budget deficit becomes. The state provides about 90% of the school district’s $558-million budget.

But the board clearly signaled Payzant last week during discussions that it wants him to cut back administrative costs, both as an alternative to curriculum cuts and as a signal to labor unions that management will take a fair share of reductions.

Trustees plan to ask their major employee organizations for a one- or two-day furlough at a savings of more than $2 million a day, or perhaps even negotiate a 1% across-the-board salary rollback, which would save more than $4 million.

The nearly $2 million cut was negotiated during a marathon six-hour closed session Monday between Payzant and trustees.

“I think the cuts did come reluctantly” on Payzant’s part, board president Ann Armstrong said Tuesday. “Remember, he cut his administrators back 25% last year,” or almost $10.5 million.

“But we didn’t want to make the first cuts that he had proposed, in music, in the social concerns programs.

“And we are negotiating (for sacrifices) with our employees and we want to be fair to everybody. If we are going to ask people to take a one- or two-day furlough or even a 1% rollback, we had to show good faith by doing things at the education center.”

Trustee John De Beck had proposed substantial central office cuts in a memo to his colleagues soon after Payzant detailed his initial proposals for budget reductions in late March.

“It was a real good-faith effort on his part and organizationally it makes sense,” De Beck said Tuesday.

Payzant, in essence, flattened his administrative organization, eliminating the mid-level managers who used to intervene between principals and assistant superintendents. No longer will there be any organizational layer between the two groups.

Payzant took three divisions and merged them under six assistant superintendents and one deputy superintendent. Each assistant superintendent will have about 25 schools to oversee, as well as several program areas such as health or fine arts.

Administration of the gifted and special education programs will be merged and the staff development department will be eliminated with its functions placed under the category of new instructional strategies.

“I understand why I was pushed on this,” Payzant said Tuesday. “But the budget cannot continue to be balanced” on cuts in the central office. “People are sadly misinformed about the enormity of the problem and do not understand . . . that you can’t take another $2 million (from administration) next month or $4 million next year and have a responsible operation for a nearly $600-million budget.”

Trustees plan to make their final decision on $10 million in cuts next Wednesday.