GARDEN GROVE : 8 School Counselors May Be Laid Off

Facing a projected $5-million shortfall in the 1993-94 budget, the Garden Grove Unified School District Board of Education has given preliminary approval to lay off eight counselors.

At its meeting Tuesday, the board unanimously approved the staff reduction, which is expected to save as much as $600,000 in salaries and benefits. Seven high school counselors and an elementary school counselor will be notified this month that they could be laid off.

District spokesman Alan Trudell said that officials will try to find jobs for those employees, possibly by using them to fill other positions vacated through attrition.

Before the board voted for the reductions, August Olin, president of the Pupil and Personnel Services Assn., one of the employee unions, denounced the proposed cuts and asked the board, “Can you imagine what this would do to the children of our district?”

Olin warned that because students are faced with gang and drug pressures, pregnancy and other social problems, eliminating counselors could be a costly decision.

“We will be seeing even more students slipping through the cracks,” he said. “Let’s look at all the options before going ahead with adoption of this plan.”

Trudell said later that the district will spend an estimated $5 million less in the 1993-94 budget than in the current $171.7-million budget because of declines in funding from the state. Because about 90% of the district’s spending goes for personnel, any major cuts must include reductions in staffing or in employee benefits, he said.

Trudell added: “We’re reaching our limits as far as cuts are concerned. . . . (We’ve) cut the fat; we’re beyond the bone right now.”