Simi School Board Cuts 16 More Teaching Jobs Amid Fiscal Crunch : Education: Action will reduce next year’s deficit by $800,000. Eight positions were eliminated earlier.

The Simi Valley school board has cut 16 junior high and high school teaching jobs from next year’s budget but decided against moving sixth-period varsity sports to after school.

In one swoop, the decision to eliminate 16 of the district’s 310 secondary teachers slashed $800,000 of an expected $2.5-million deficit from next year’s $77.1-million budget.

In an earlier round of cuts Feb. 1, the board of the Simi Valley Unified School District trimmed $702,000 from the budget. More than half that savings--about $400,000--came from cutting eight teaching jobs, including elementary teachers. So far, 24 of the district’s 640 teaching jobs have been eliminated.

Board member Debbie Sandland opposed the reductions in a 4-1 vote late Wednesday. But her colleagues on the board said months of review showed they had little choice since more than half the budget is made up of salaries and benefits.

“If we don’t make this $800,000 cut, I don’t know where we’re going to find that kind of money,” board President Carla Kurachi said.

Member Judy Barry agreed. “I don’t know how else to address it. We’ve turned over every rock I can think of.”

School officials said they will not know until April or May how many of the teaching cuts can be made by not replacing teachers who retire or leave voluntarily, and how many will be made by layoffs.

Jennifer Guzel, a mathematics teacher at Royal High School, said that as a new teacher she expects to be a target of the budget ax. The board was balancing the budget at the expense of students, she said.

“There are other places to cut,” Guzel said. “The cuts should hit the classroom last.”

Sandland agreed that with fewer teachers, students will be forced into more crowded classes. For that reason, she said, all district employees--including administrators--should consider accepting a 2% pay cut to keep some of the teaching positions.

“If you want to save programs and you want to save jobs, that’s where the money is,” Sandland said.

Peggie Noisette, president of the Simi Educators Assn., said the teachers union would oppose a pay cut. She said the board already hopes to persuade teachers to patrol campuses for free so that the district can save $100,000, about 20% of the budget for campus supervisors.

“The next thing, they’re going to ask us to drive the buses to school since it’s on our way,” Noisette said.

A teachers’ pay cut and unpaid supervision duties will both be discussed when the two sides sit down to negotiate a new contract, she said. The current three-year pact expires in June.

“I don’t see it as our obligation as teachers to subsidize the education of children in this community,” Noisette said.

In other action, the board kept athletics as part of the school day when coaches offered to find other ways to cut $100,000 from their budgets.

The board had discussed moving sports to after school because the district then could legally charge athletes fees. As long as varsity sports are part of the school day, the district must provide it free, officials said.

Terry Dobbins, athletic director at Royal High, said after the vote that losing sixth-period athletics would have made Simi Valley’s teams less competitive because league rules bar after-school teams from practicing together in the off-season.

As a compromise, parents will be asked to pay fees. Coaches will also be more creative in scheduling games closer to home and getting parents to help drive team members, Dobbins said. Students who could not afford to pay the fees would not be barred from participating, he said.

“Of all the bad options, this was one that we could work with,” Dobbins said. “Every one of us would consider it a victory.”

The board also voted Wednesday to trim special education by 5%, or $100,000; reduce operational budgets by 8%, or $150,000, excluding money for classroom materials, including textbooks, and cut three clerical positions to save $68,000.

Earlier this month, the board agreed to start charging parents for home-to-school transportation to save about $190,000.

So far, the board has cut a total of about $2.1 million.