School Board Faces Tough Decisions on Cuts : Education: Thousand Oaks officials are set to slash $2.1 million. A popular reading program faces elimination.

After weeks of lobbying by parents worried about an erosion of educational quality, Thousand Oaks school officials tonight are set to slash $2.1 million from the district’s $75-million budget for the coming school year.

Among the recommended cuts receiving the most attention from parents are the planned elimination of a one-on-one reading program for elementary students struggling in class and reduced hours for elementary school librarians.

“We’re cutting reading specialists and librarians. What kind of message does that send to our kids?” said Allison Shaneman of Newbury Park, who has a 4-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter. “Gee, I guess reading doesn’t matter.”

Shaneman and others who fought to save the reading specialists from elimination last year have organized a letter-writing campaign to board members, drawing from the 1,500 parents who signed petitions a year ago, they said.

“If children can’t read, they can’t perform any other task that is put before them,” said Catherine Pruitt, who has three daughters attending Walnut Elementary School, which would lose a reading specialist under the budget recommendation.

None of the cuts will be easy because they follow a total of $9.1 million in cuts from three straight years of budget trimming in the Conejo Valley Unified School District, school board members said three weeks ago at a budget meeting.

“This is going to be a bad year and next year is going to be worse,” board member William Henry said. “We’ve been party to the destruction of the education system. It’s a shame we don’t have the ability to stop it here.”

The district found itself in a bind when the state did not increase funding to cover inflation, as costs rose and the district was locked into teacher pay raises totaling 20% over three years, officials said.

The district has been dipping into reserves for the past few years, but next year a $1-million deficit is projected and the district must restore $1 million to its empty savings account, officials said.

“I think we all have to recognize that things won’t be ideal for a while,” board member Richard Newman told the audience at the last board meeting.

Since cuts were first proposed a month ago, district administrators have revised the recommendation to reduce cuts to intermediate and high school counselors and to keep seventh period at the intermediate schools for elective courses.

Both changes came in response to concerns raised by parents and board members, Supt. William Seaver said.

In addition, a plan to eliminate an elementary school principal by having one principal cover two schools was scrapped after most board members objected, Seaver said.

Still on the chopping block are three reading specialists, who rotate to various elementary schools and take aside children for intensive learning sessions who are having trouble learning to read.

One year ago, the program was proposed for elimination, but parental opposition led the board to halve the number of reading specialists from six to three.

“I get them in the first and second grade, so we can try to catch these little people before they get into trouble,” said Jessie Lammers, a reading specialist for 24 years in the district.

Under a special state program that partially funds the program, the district pays only a portion of the teachers’ salaries, officials said. Eliminating the three specialists would save $60,000 per year.

Dozens of letters have been sent to board members in recent weeks urging them to spare the program, campaign organizers said, including one letter from a parent who years ago learned to read with the help of Lammers.

“It’s serious business, what we’re doing in here,” Lammers said. “It changes kids’ lives.”

Also slated for cuts are the district’s 18 elementary school librarians, responsible for purchasing new books, checking them out, and working with students from each class to find materials for reports and projects.

The district has proposed cutting librarians’ hours by 25%, to 3.75 hours per day, which would save $185,500 per year. But the librarians counter that reducing hours would add to the workload of already overburdened teachers.

It also would affect students, who now can ask for help in finding a book to suit their needs, said Kathy Lewis, who runs the library at Cypress Elementary School.

“Sometimes, the reluctant readers are afraid to try, but we just keep handing them books until they can’t say no,” Lewis said. “They trust us to find books they’ll enjoy reading.”

The librarians have responded to the district’s recommendation with three counterproposals to reduce their work year by two or four weeks, or to shorten their work hours to four hours per day.

The district is seeking not only to save money in wages but also in expensive health benefits, Seaver said. Employees who work fewer than four hours per day are not eligible for benefits.

“If we decide not to do one cut, we’ve got to take that money from someplace else,” Seaver said.

District officials have stressed that negotiations only recently began on a new three-year teachers’ contract. If the district negotiates a savings, some programs cut tonight could be restored, Seaver said.

The cuts must proceed now because the district is required to submit a balanced budget by June 30, Seaver said.

“We all feel terrible, but this isn’t in concrete yet,” board member Dorothy Beaubien said.

Other proposed cuts include shortening the work year for classified and maintenance staff by two weeks and giving a five-day furlough to all district managers and supervisors. About $700,000 in cuts would result in onetime savings only.