Pay of Anton, Top School Administrators May Be Cut to Balance Budget

Faced with the painful task of fairly distributing $247.3 million in pay cuts, the Los Angeles Board of Education is considering plans that would take a bigger bite out of the salaries of top administrators to lessen the impact on the district’s lowest-paid workers.

One high-ranking school district official, who did not want to be identified, said various options being studied by the board include a plan to cut an extra 2.5% from the pay of the about 45 administrators who earn $90,000 or more a year. That would include Supt. Bill Anton.

“The issue of the graduated pay scale has been discussed in detail, and there’s no doubt in my mind that a graduated pay scale will be implemented by the board,” board member Roberta Weintraub said.

Several board members cautioned Tuesday that they have not made final decisions on what the size of the pay cuts will be for any of the district’s employees. Most of the cuts are subject to negotiation. The board members emphasized, however, that a graduated pay cut would be the most equitable way to divide the $247.3 million in compensation reductions approved by the board last month to balance the district’s budget.

“I think the more we can differentiate, the fairer it’s going to be,” said board member Jeff Horton, who said he favored a pay cut scale with up to six levels. “There are implementation difficulties to doing it, but I think it’s the fairest way. . . . And I don’t pretend it’ll make this a palatable cut for anybody.”

The school board precariously balanced the district’s budget in June, slashing hundreds of positions, eliminating programs and reducing maintenance to make up a $400-million shortfall for the 1992-93 school year.

Board members have been wrestling with how to handle the pay cuts, which follow a 3% pay cut and furlough days imposed on the district’s 58,000 full-time employees last school year to balance the 1991-92 budget. Most employees had their salaries restored to the 1990-91 level for the months of July to September, but the pending cuts could set them back again.

Board members Leticia Quezada and Barbara Boudreaux emphasized that the lowest-paid employees, who receive no medical benefits, should suffer little or no pay cut this year.

“My feeling is that . . . employees (without benefits) shouldn’t take any pay cuts,” Boudreaux said. But she also said she did not favor penalizing top administrators disproportionately to teachers.

Quezada said she would like to see workers who earn $25,000 and under take the smallest pay cut. “Our immediate concern is moving on to bargaining those pay cuts with all bargaining units. We need to bring that decision to a close very soon,” she said.

The board must also decide what form the cuts should take--how much will be directly taken out of salaries and how much through furlough days.

Weintraub said that a higher cut for top administrators would make the district “very non-competitive” when it comes to recruiting top management. “We no longer will be competitive after the pay cut,” she said.

About 45 administrators--those working in central or regional offices--make more than $90,000 a year. More than half, including the superintendent, work under contracts. All are represented in salary matters by the superintendent, instead of by a bargaining unit.

District officials say that the board should have a final plan for how to distribute the pay cuts by the end of the week.