ORANGE : School Board Votes to Eliminate 36 Jobs

Trustees for the Orange Unified School District unanimously voted last week to eliminate 36 jobs to close a $485,000 shortfall in its $107-million 1993-94 budget.

The board’s 7-0 vote Thursday night follows a steady course of budget-tightening over three years. In that time, the district has slashed $11.5 million from budgets, resulting in layoffs to teachers and classified employees.

In January, the board approved cutting expenses for administrators, which saved about $180,000. A proposal to trim benefits to trustees is pending.

“Nobody wishes more than me that layoffs weren’t necessary,” said Trustee Max Reissmueller Thursday night. “Life is life, and we can’t pay what we don’t have.”

The board ignored a plea from the president of the classified employees union to postpone a decision on the layoffs until negotiations between the union and the district could be concluded.

“I was surprised the vote was 7 to zip,” said union President Becky Mayers. “It tells me there are people up there who haven’t been laid off before and don’t know what it feels like.”

The board had delayed a vote on the layoffs in December and hoped that scheduled talks between union and district officials could offer cost-trimming measures elsewhere. At Thursday night’s meeting, Interim Supt. Marilyn Corey said the district would lose $90,000 for each month it pushed back implementation of the layoffs.

“Each delay could result in deeper cuts in services to students,” said Corey, who recommended the board approve the layoffs.

After the vote, Mayers was hopeful a plan could be developed that retained the jobs by slashing union costs elsewhere. Mayers would not say where the cuts would come from. School officials said Thursday if such a plan were devised and agreed upon, the union jobs could be retained.

But Trustee Bob Viviano wasn’t quite as optimistic about the prospect of such an agreement between the district and the union, who have been engaged in talks since the summer.

“The fact we are going to have a meeting doesn’t mean we are going to have an agreement,” he said.