Buyout Offer Is Made to Schools Chief : Antelope Valley: The financially troubled high school district approves $100,000 to void Supt. Kenneth Brummel’s contract, sources say.

Spurred by news that its already dire financial problems are getting worse, the Antelope Valley Union High School District has decided to speed the departure of Supt. Kenneth Brummel by paying him $100,000 to void the final 2 1/2 years of his contract, district sources said Wednesday.

The decision came after the troubled district, already facing a $12.4-million shortfall blamed largely on poor management, learned that a new series of budgeting mistakes could add $700,000 to $1 million to the deficit. Ironically, the errors were made by the financial overseers who Los Angeles County installed to shepherd the district out of its predicament.

The district’s board of trustees voted 5 to 0 Tuesday night to ratify a buyout under which Brummel left work on paid medical leave Monday, which will continue until nearly his formal resignation date of Jan. 1, 1993, after five years on the job.

Board members publicly insisted that they had not demanded Brummel’s ouster and refused to disclose the financial terms of the deal. But sources close to the talks confirmed the $100,000 buyout, and said board members had lost confidence in Brummel, threatening to fire him unless he agreed to the deal.

Brummel could not be reached for comment Wednesday. In the past, he had consistently denied direct responsibility for the district’s financial problems, blaming them on subordinates’ errors. Board members have been divided on who deserved direct blame.

Board President Sophia Waugh said she hoped the district’s more than 1,000 employees--who face 7% salary cuts and increased health benefit costs this year because of the district’s financial problems--will support the board’s decision and get a morale boost from the change.

Brummel, 57, was hired as superintendent in December, 1987, and later won a four-year contract from July 1, 1991, through June 30, 1995. The $100,000 buyout is less than the nearly $250,000 in salary that Brummel otherwise would have been owed for the period between January, 1993, and mid-1995.

Brummel had initially sought as much as $400,000 to $500,000 to leave his job, district sources said, but ultimately settled for the lesser amount to protect his retirement benefits. Had Brummel been fired before his fifth year on the job, he would have lost those benefits, the sources added.

Brummel’s contract provided a $92,848-a-year salary, plus $7,200 annually in expense allowances, for a total of just over $100,000, though he recently had volunteered to take the 7% pay cut that will be given other employees. His retirement benefit from the state teachers’ system could total $7,000 a year, according to state retirement formulas.

Although Brummel’s departure had been under discussion for several months, and he had tried but failed to get another superintendent’s job in a Texas district, the final push for his removal came late last month when board members learned of the district’s latest financial woes.

As a result of the district’s financial problems, its two top business officials left and the county superintendent of schools, in the first action of its kind in the state, appointed an adviser, aided by an auditor, to oversee the district’s money matters.

But the adviser and auditor, in preparing this year’s budget, failed to include more than $700,000 in expenses--including their own salaries.

“Why it wasn’t caught was just one of those things,” said Norm Miller, the adviser. He blamed the rush to prepare the district’s troubled budget, and the heavy workload it laid on auditor Sue Rowe.

“When hurrying, you make those kinds of mistakes,” Miller said.

The missing items were flagged by county school officials, who have yet to approve the district’s budget. The neglected items include $482,000 in interest payments on a bailout loan from the county, the fiscal adviser’s $500-a-day pay, and the auditor’s $450 daily pay.

Meanwhile, trustees of the six-campus, 11,500-student district also voted to appoint Robert Sanchez, the assistant superintendent for educational services, as interim superintendent. Trustees said they hope to hire a permanent superintendent by December or January.