Hiring Frozen as Schools Trim $3 Million More : Education: Other trims affect administrative office spending and employee health benefits.

Long Beach schools, which already suffered $5.1 million in cuts this year, must trim $3 million more, the school board decided this week.

The board imposed an immediate hiring freeze, cut administrative office spending and approved a change in employee health benefits that must be ratified by employee unions.

The cuts were made in anticipation of a drop in state funding for the 1993-94 school year. This year, schools were given as much per pupil as they got last year, but the state had to borrow against future allocations to do it.

Supt. E. Tom Giugni said that if left until next spring, the cuts to the district’s $302-million budget could decimate school programs.

“We would love to not have to make these cuts,” Trustee Bobbie Smith told a crowd of about 200 at the board meeting Monday. “But the state has simply not given us the money we need to operate on a healthy level.”

The district administrative office must make $200,000 in cuts, which are expected to come from travel and equipment.

The shift in health benefits would require employees to pay more for hospital visits and would save the district $1.4 million.

The board considered, but rejected, $3.4 million in additional cuts, including a reduction in the number of elementary school librarians from 30 to five and middle school librarians from 14 to seven.

So many parents and teachers attended the meeting to oppose the library cuts that the crowd overflowed into the halls.

With her daughter at her side, Monica Harper told the board that books have opened whole worlds to her child.

“At this time in America, when everyone’s on fire to make people more literate, I just can’t even believe that we’re discussing these cuts,” Harper said.

Also spared were a counseling position at each high school and an assistant maintenance director. The board also turned down a proposal to save $800,000 by ending Camp Hi-Hill, a summer camp for fifth-graders.

The board rejected a plan proposed by the Teachers Assn. of Long Beach for each administrator to serve 10 days a year as a substitute teacher, for a savings of $130,000.

President Jim Deaton said the association also recommended cutting counseling positions and staff at the assignment center.

“The majority of our proposals were ignored,” Deaton said. “Teachers have taken their share. We need to look at everything.”

Deaton said his union had not had a chance to discuss the proposed health benefit changes.

Richard Sharp, representing the classified employees union, said the hiring freeze will hurt his members. “The classified staff has taken too many hits,” he said.

The board also approved plans to verify employees’ marriage licenses and birth certificates to determine if their dependents are eligible for health insurance coverage. The action is expected to save the district $85,000.

Most cuts passed with unanimous board votes, but board member Jenny Oropeza supported the proposal to have administrators teach.

“In these tough times, to ask an administrator to spend time in the classroom is not unreasonable,” she said.

But board President Mary Stanton said a principal could not leave a classroom to take care of a dangerous situation outside.