IRVINE : School District Will Lay Off 200 Workers

The Irvine Unified School District Board of Education voted unanimously early Wednesday to lay off 200 non-teaching employees, calling it a regretful but necessary step to trim $1 million from the budget.

The employees, mostly part-timers, will receive 30-day notices by certified mail in the next few days, Deputy Supt. Susan Harter said.

Affected workers include classroom and library assistants, clerks, secretaries, guidance officers, physical education aides and computer lab technicians. The school district has 30 days to cancel the layoffs should it receive more state funding than expected, Supt. David E. Brown said.

Gov. Pete Wilson and the state Legislature are wrangling over a spending plan for California, which does not yet have a fiscal 1992-93 budget.

The workers targeted for layoffs are paid through three programs that state officials say are not likely to be funded in the new budget, Brown said. Those programs are Gifted and Talented Education, School Improvement Program and Economic Impact Aid.

Until the state adopts its budget, there is no way of knowing whether those 200 employees will lose their jobs permanently or how the loss of state funding will affect the district’s program for gifted students, Brown said.

The board’s layoff decision shortly after midnight Wednesday followed hours of heated discussion on ways to trim another $2 million from the district’s budget for fiscal 1992, which began July 1. About 230 parents, students and teachers attended the meeting, pleading with the board to save programs on the chopping block.

Typical of parents speaking was Judy Marquez, who asked the board not to cut music and art programs.

“We’re constantly telling children to say no to drugs, say no to alcohol, say no to gangs. But what are we offering them as alternatives?” said Marquez, who has two children attending Brywood Elementary School.

Proposed cuts would reduce science instruction by 25% and music programs by 50% in grades four through six; eliminate the extra “zero period” at middle schools; cut art instruction for grades one to six by 50%; reduce the number of bus stops serving students at three schools; reduce health services, speech and language programs and the number of school psychologists; and cut athletic funding.

The board voted to delay action on those cuts until its July 21 meeting to give members time to discuss them with parents and teachers and to search for alternatives.

“I too have children that will be impacted by every one of those (cuts),” board member Michael B. Regele said. “We’re in a desperate situation here, and it could get worse.”

Regele blamed the district’s budget problem on an overall lack of courage on the part of everyone from state leaders down to individual parents, who, he said, have not made public education a priority. As an example, Regele alluded to the failure last summer of a proposed $35-a-year property tax increase that would have brought extra money to Irvine schools.