District Finds Funds to Reduce Pay Cuts : Education: L.A. school board gives preliminary approval to cutting positions and continuing hiring freeze.

Los Angeles Unified School District employees received a possible reprieve from looming salary cuts Thursday as the Board of Education tentatively approved $51 million in alternative savings to soften the impact on workers’ pay checks.

The school board gave preliminary support to measures that would eliminate positions, slash funds for substitute workers and continue a districtwide hiring freeze in order to minimize pending pay cuts that would have ranged this year from 6% for the lowest-paid workers to 16.5% for the highest-paid administrators.

“We’re not done yet,” emphasized board member Mark Slavkin. “We’re going to continue working to do what we can to make tough choices and lower those pay cuts.”

The school board in June proposed cutting employee pay by $247.3 million to help make up a $400-million budget shortfall. Additionally, furlough days imposed on employees last year would pare another $23.6 million from workers’ salaries, for a total savings of $270.9 million through pay cuts.

But in recent days, district officials pledged to find alternative cost-saving measures to trim the proposed cuts. The pending reductions, to be accomplished through a combination of unpaid days off and lowered base salaries, would come on top of a 3% salary reduction imposed on district employees last year.

If the board adopts the proposed alternatives at its Sept. 29 meeting, employee pay cuts will be softened by $51 million, said Robert Booker, the district’s chief financial officer.

Besides continuing a districtwide hiring freeze for a savings of $10 million, the board said it would be willing to:

* Reduce funds currently designated to pay substitutes by $13 million.

* Lower funding levels for its workers’ compensation and liability insurance funds for a savings of $14.3 million.

* Eliminate 92 positions for additional teachers at schools receiving children bused in from overcrowded campuses--a $3 million savings.

* Reallocate unspent funds and have multitrack elementary schools determine the number of teachers they need based upon their entire enrollment--a $3-million savings.

At its meeting Thursday, the board considered a total of $68 million in cuts recommended by its staff and an independent panel--chaired by former Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp. After completing a review of the state budget, district officials also identified an additional $8 million in revenue to help offset the pay reductions.

The specter of massive reductions has sparked a wave of student demonstrations, caused heightened tensions among employee bargaining units and forced officials to consider trimming the school year by eight days to shift the burden of the cuts from salary reductions to time off without pay.

In the latest protest--organized by students from Birmingham and Fairfax high schools--about 100 demonstrators rallied peacefully on the steps of City Hall Thursday morning.

Birmingham High Principal Henry Gradillas said students will be marked truant for their unexcused absence, and disciplinary actions will depend on each student’s behavior record. But Fairfax High Principal Mike O’Sullivan said there was no discipline planned for students who participated in the protest, though they would receive absences on their record.