Budget Woes Force Inglewood District to Shut School, Cut Jobs : Education: Dozens of workers face layoffs as officials attempt to meet county guidelines on fiscal plan. Union representatives protest the cutbacks.

Its budget rejected by the Los Angeles County superintendent of schools, the Inglewood Unified School District is closing a school and laying off dozens of teachers, custodians and administrators in an effort to obtain the superintendent’s approval.

According to a list supplied by the district on Friday, the district’s governing board has decided to lay off 11 custodians, up to 18 teachers, several assistant principals and one administrative assistant to district Supt. George McKenna. The board has also voted to close Hillcrest Continuation School, which serves students who fail to fit in at the district’s two regular high schools.

The sudden cuts came after the county superintendent of schools took the district to task for attempting to balance its budget in June by ordering a 2% pay cut for all employees and changes in teacher health benefits. Like all districts, Inglewood must get the county superintendent’s approval or possibly lose control of its finances to a county financial overseer.

The county says the district was claiming savings that it did not actually have because such cuts are subject to negotiations with employee labor groups. In an Aug. 10 letter to the district, County Supt. Stuart E. Gothold said the Inglewood school system also failed to adequately fund its special education and adult education programs.

In all, the board had to make more than $2.3 million of cuts last week in a special meeting that stretched into the early hours Thursday morning. It was unclear Friday whether the district will still seek the 2% pay cut at the bargaining table.

The layoffs infuriated employee groups, which have complained before that the district administration is top-heavy.

“We feel that the people who are at fault should take the cuts,” said Christopher Graeber, of the California Professional Employees, Local 2345, which represents workers including clerks and custodians. “They should start at the top where they would save a lot more money.”

Graeber said the district, for instance, should not have hired a new public information officer after Maurice Wiley, the former officer, resigned. The new officer, Elizabeth Norwood, started work on Monday.

“During a fiscal crisis they hire a new public relations person,” Graeber said. “They should at least have delayed it. Our people are furious.”

Graeber also said his union members objected to the board’s decision last week to hire a consultant, at $65 an hour, to advise it on budget matters. If the district’s salaried budget experts are not competent, he said, they should be fired.

Graeber said his union is also planning to take the district to court over what he described as its failure to notify the public of Wednesday night’s meeting in which the layoffs were approved. Norwood, however, said on Friday that she believed public notice of the meeting had been given.