Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : School District Staff Protests Plan to Cut Activities Budget : Education: Coaches and others in the Antelope Valley say they will not perform the extra duties if funding is further reduced.

While the Antelope Valley Union High School District is moving toward solvency, the cuts it is proposing to get itself back in the black have some seeing red.

About 140 coaches and other staff members involved with extracurricular activities such as athletics, the yearbook and bands said they would no longer perform the extra duties if their budgets for the coming school year were cut further this year.

“All coaches were pretty much fund-raisers this year,” said Garry Phelps, a basketball coach at Palmdale High School for more than two decades, who with about two dozen other extracurricular instructors on Wednesday presented their ultimatum to district trustees on a petition.

In recent budget deliberations the district said it will reduce the stipends that it pays for extracurricular staff by 25%, a move that would save nearly $72,000.

Phelps said that whether the district cuts one-fourth of the extracurricular positions or reduces by 25% the amount each person receives, running the extracurricular programs will be impossible. Staff members for the programs already took a 50% cut in their stipend and also saw equipment budgets cut nearly in half, he said.

The 13,000-student, six-school district last year faced a $14-million shortfall that resulted in about 140 layoffs as well as cuts in salaries, benefits and spending. The Los Angeles County Office of Education assigned a fiscal adviser to the district to monitor its finances.

District officials said Wednesday that the budget they are preparing for the 1993-94 fiscal year, which begins July 1, includes a 3% reserve.

But a financially sound budget comes with a price tag. Besides the stipend reductions, the district will have to reduce the teaching staff by 50, continue the moratorium on new programs and keep services, such as maintenance, at their current reduced levels.