ORANGE : Cuts Proposed in Schools’ Pay, Benefits

To cover a budget shortfall that could range from $5 million to $12 million, the Orange Unified School District may need to cut everything from salaries to athletic programs, a district official said last week.

Joyce Capelle, district director of fiscal services, told school board members that Orange Unified has “not much left to cut. . . . It’s a bare-bones program.” The district’s goal will be to make cuts in the approximately $106-million budget that will “minimize staff reductions and stay away from the classroom,” she said.

The “lion’s share” of the district’s shortfall will be made up from salary and benefits reductions, Capelle said. The district is currently negotiating with both its teachers and classified employee unions and has proposed cutting salaries by 4%, along with health and welfare benefits.

However, some long-favored appropriations, such as the $1 million the district spends on its athletics program, could also face the budget knife, she said. “In a year when we are asking our employees to take significant salary rollbacks, we cannot avoid” talking about trimming athletics, she said.

The district could save money by reducing the number of sports contests each year without cutting any program completely, she said. In addition, the district could consider charging for athletic program transportation, which costs $100,000 each year.

Orange Unified also should consider charging students for home to school bus transportation, she said, adding that charging students $1 a day could cut in half the $800,000 gap in the district transportation budget.

In addition, Capelle said that increasing secondary school class sizes from about 28 to 30 students per classroom could save $1.3 million.

The district should also create programs to improve attendance rates. Truancy and unexplained absences cost the district $1.4 million in average daily attendance funds, she said.

The district should continue to seek state and federal grants and should consider charging the public more for use of school facilities to raise revenue and cover operating costs, she said.

The district must wait for the state to finalize its budget before officials can gauge what Orange Unified’s deficit will be next year. But Capelle said state cuts could have an effect in the district ranging from “bad to catastrophic.”

The state is constitutionally required to adopt its budget by June 15, but Capelle said the document may not be approved until much later.

The Board of Education is scheduled to adopt the district’s 1992-93 budget at its June 25 meeting, but may postpone adoption if the state’s figures are unavailable. A tentative district plan must be in place by July 1, Capelle said.