Antelope Valley Schools Chief Takes Medical Leave

The superintendent of the financially stricken Antelope Valley Union High School District will take a four-month medical leave of absence, beginning Monday, and is expected to retire at the end of the year, school district officials said Friday.

Kenneth Brummel, 57, the top administrator of the 11,500-student district for nearly five years, announced the medical leave Thursday after meeting privately with the district’s board of trustees. Brummel was admitted to a hospital for several days in May for treatment of chest pains.

The trustees directed the district’s lawyer to write a settlement contract that will be discussed at 7 p.m. Tuesday in closed session. The outcome of that meeting will be made public afterward, board President Sophia Waugh said Friday.

Brummel and the trustees have been grappling in recent months with a projected $12.4-million budget shortfall that trustees said caught them by surprise in January. The crisis caused the elimination of 101 jobs and will result in larger teacher workloads and more crowded classes.

The Los Angeles County Office of Education was appointed earlier this year to oversee the district’s finances, the first such action in the state.

Brummel, who was paid $95,000 a year, volunteered to reduce his salary to $88,000 last month. His four-year contract expires in June, 1995, but he is expected to resign effective at the end of the year, Waugh said.

“We need a leader--we need someone with fresh ideas,” Waugh said.

Brummel was unavailable for comment Friday.

Waugh said the district asked the county Thursday to recommend four or five names of retired superintendents with “strong financial backgrounds” who could be hired temporarily until a permanent replacement can be found.

The board expects to be able to hire one of the county’s candidates within two weeks and a permanent superintendent at the end of this year or the beginning of next year, Waugh said.

The county has yet to approve a $41.6-million budget for 1992-93 that the district’s trustees designed to erase the budget deficit. The district sent it to the county in June for approval, Waugh said.