As Schools Keep Cutting, Students May Pay the Price : Education: Many districts continue to slash costs, bringing increased class sizes and fewer extracurricular activities.

Young athletes in the South Pasadena Unified School District might have to pay as much as $113 a year to play school sports starting this fall.

Music students at Hacienda La Puente Unified might have to make do without their instruments for a time if they break down, because the repair budget is being cut.

First-graders entering Duarte Unified will get less individual attention from teachers, as class size swells from 25 to 29 students.

From art to zoology, from guidance counselors to campus security, this year’s school district budgets continue to chip away at the quality and variety of educational programs offered throughout the San Gabriel Valley.

Most of the districts in the region reported some kind of cuts in either supplemental programs or teaching and clerical staff for the 1993-94 school year.

Districts lucky enough to escape the ax this year said they took their hits in the last three years and are now operating with a lower overhead. Some have gouged as much as $6.6 million out of their budgets since 1990.

Attrition accounted for most of the school positions eliminated. But several districts also laid off staff, including Duarte, Hacienda La Puente and Mountain View.

In general, this year’s school district budgets, cobbled together amid the third year of dire financial news from the state, contained less severe cuts than in the past two years.

Many districts sharply curtailed or eliminated their art, music and some sports programs in years past. In today’s economic climate, these activities have become frills that financially strapped school districts simply cannot afford.

“We still maintain a sports program but we cut elementary art and music years ago, literally after Proposition 13,” said Harold Day, business manager of Bassett Unified. “We’re cutting into regular programs now.”

Some districts, including Garvey and San Marino, dipped into financial reserves to break even rather than make additional cuts. The state requires districts to keep a minimum 3% financial reserve in case of emergencies, but some fiscally conservative administrators had squirreled away larger amounts over the years and are now using that money.

Several local school districts have also cut back top administrative positions or left them open. Azusa won’t fill a vacant position for associate superintendent of instruction, which will save more than $100,000 annually. Mountain View Unified reassigned one of its assistant superintendents to the classroom.

Rosemead eliminated its director of maintenance and operations, saving $50,000 annually, and Supt. Robert D. Hansen agreed to take a $2,500 pay cut this year, reducing his salary to $83,264.

“The superintendent’s view is that if we’re going to make cuts, we’re going to start at the top,” said Steven Cary, Rosemead’s assistant superintendent for business services. “He wants to send the message out, so that if we have to lay off someone lower down, we’ve done our share.”

Districts that avoided cuts this year included Alhambra, Arcadia, Charter Oak, Covina-Valley, El Monte City, Garvey, Glendora, San Gabriel and Walnut. Most attributed this to good management, fiscal planning and belt-tightening since 1990.

But even those districts that cut cherished programs still explored alternate sources of funding to minimize the impact on students.

In South Pasadena, Eva Lueck, the assistant superintendent of business services, said district officials would meet with the Booster Club to see if that civic organization could defray the costs of participating in athletics. Lueck said the district probably would offer some scholarships to students who wanted to play sports but who couldn’t afford the sign-up fees.

“Philosophically, we don’t believe there should be a charge, especially since for some kids, that is their one outlet; that’s what keeps them in school,” Lueck said.

In Duarte Unified, where positions have been left unfilled and departments have been reorganized, officials assessed this year’s budget cuts grimly:

“Teachers will be serving more kids in the classroom than they have in the past,” said Sherryl Morris, Duarte’s business manager. “We’ve done everything we can to keep the cuts as far away from the classroom as possible. It is getting harder and harder each year.”

1993-94 Budgets for San Gabriel Valley Districts DISTRICT: Alhambra City and High School BUDGET: $163 million IMPACT: no cuts this year; $1.5 million in cuts last year DISTRICT: Arcadia BUDGET: $33 million IMPACT: no cuts; $1.3 million in cuts were made last year DISTRICT: Azusa BUDGET: $44 million IMPACT: no cuts; $4 million in cuts were made in the last two years DISTRICT: Baldwin Park BUDGET: $67.5 million IMPACT: $450,000 in cuts; 14 teacher positions lost through attrition DISTRICT: Bassett BUDGET: $35 million IMPACT: $300,000 in cuts; 4 teacher and 4 clerical positions lost; cuts in equipment, supplies DISTRICT: Bonita BUDGET: $42.9 million IMPACT: $1.6 million in cuts; 18 teacher and administrator jobs lost through layoffs and attrition DISTRICT: Charter Oak BUDGET: $24.4 million IMPACT: no cuts this year; cuts of $1.2 million over last three years DISTRICT: Claremont BUDGET: $20.4 million IMPACT: $800,000 in cuts; mainly loss of free student ransportation for extracurricular activities DISTRICT: Covina Valley BUDGET: $50.1 million IMPACT: no cuts this year; large layoffs and cuts last year DISTRICT: Duarte BUDGET: $18 million IMPACT: $200,000 in cuts including staff layoffs, loss of teacher positions by attrition; class size will increase from 25 to 29 in first grade DISTRICT: El Monte City BUDGET: $43.4 million IMPACT: no cuts this year; massive cuts in last three years DISTRICT: El Monte Union High School BUDGET: $70 million IMPACT: $3.2 million in cuts; 4 teacher positions lost; unknown number of clerical positions lost; cuts in textbooks, supplies and maintenance DISTRICT: Garvey BUDGET: $30 million IMPACT: no cuts this year; district dipped into extra 2% financial reserve set up over the state-mandated 3%; district made $600,000 in cuts last year DISTRICT: Glendora BUDGET: $25 million IMPACT: no cuts; district cut $2 million over last two years DISTRICT: Hacienda La Puente BUDGET: $87.3 million IMPACT: $2.2 million in cuts including loss of equivalent of 8 high school teachers, librarians and counselors, 13 custodial and clerical positions DISTRICT: Monrovia BUDGET: $18.2 million IMPACT: $447,000 in cuts, including 6 1/2 teaching positions eliminated; free bus service ended, class size increased from 30 to 33 DISTRICT: Mountain View BUDGET: $38 million IMPACT: $900,000 in cuts; 12 posts lost by attrition, 5 staff layoffs DISTRICT: Pasadena BUDGET: $75 million IMPACT: $430,000 in cuts; public relations consultant eliminated, job training and math and science programs cut. DISTRICT: Pomona BUDGET: $114 million IMPACT: $2 million in various staff and program cuts; 44 posts eliminated among teachers, counselors and aides DISTRICT: Rosemead BUDGET: $11.5 million IMPACT: $281,000 in cuts, including eliminating position of maintenance director, 3 custodians DISTRICT: Rowland BUDGET: $75 million IMPACT: no cuts; $7.1 million cut in last three years DISTRICT: San Gabriel BUDGET: $14.4 million IMPACT: no cuts; various cuts in previous years, including elementary choral music program DISTRICT: San Marino BUDGET: $11.7 million IMPACT: no cuts; budget balanced with $76,000 from reserves DISTRICT: South Pasadena BUDGET: $12 million IMPACT: $350,000 in cuts; 2 1/2 teacher jobs eliminated; employee health care switched; no more free transportation for athletic events. DISTRICT: Temple City BUDGET: $19 million IMPACT: $1 million in cuts; 11 teaching positions cut; student-teacher ratio will rise from 32-1 to 35-1 DISTRICT: Valle Lindo BUDGET: $3.4 million IMPACT: $250,000 in cuts; 8 teacher positions eliminated; class size will rise from 27 to 30 students. DISTRICT: Walnut BUDGET: $52 million IMPACT: no cuts; district used money in reserves to balance budget but has cut $6.6 million in last three years