FOUNTAIN VALLEY : District Alters Policy on Reimbursement

Fountain Valley School District employees no longer will be reimbursed for lodging expenses to attend professional conferences within 40 miles of the district office.

As a cost-saving measure, the majority of the Board of Trustees recently voted to pay only for travel expenses to professional meetings located 40 miles away or farther.

Trustees Larry R. Crandall and Julie Hoxsie voted against revising the board policy.

Trustee President Robert Sedlak said he believes the expenditure to pay for teachers, administrators or other school district employees to stay in hotels locally is not a “wise use of the district’s funds.”

The new board policy would not allow for payment for lodging at professional meetings held in Orange County, Long Beach and downtown Los Angeles. During 1992-93, the district paid local lodging reimbursements of about $2,500, which included conferences in Anaheim and Long Beach.

Hoxsie said she voted against the policy because the money is well-spent.

“There’s a wealth of information to be gained,” Hoxsie said. “When you come and go from conference, you lose your focus and you don’t get absorbed into it.

“The knowledge they bring back to other staff members and students outweighs the cost of the hotel room.”

Hoxsie said she prefers to leave the decision up to employees whether to spend the night in a hotel.

“If they feel it’s worthwhile, then they should be able to stay.”

Teachers also believe changing the policy does more harm than good.

“I just think they’re being penny-wise and pound foolish,” said Judie Lowman, president of the Fountain Valley Education Assn. “The amount of money they’re talking about is very small. . . . The district loses because the employee doesn’t get new skills.”

Lowman said the district’s new policy will discourage teachers from attending local conferences. She also questioned the district’s reasoning for setting the distance to be measured from the district office.

“I guess it’s just the tone it sets,” Lowman said of the policy. “It says to employees that ‘we’re not real interested in things that benefit you.’ ”