Study Shows How Leaner Schools Can Cut Millions : Education: Computers and stream- lined operations could help bring the district’s business practices into the ‘90s, new report says.

The Los Angeles Unified School District could save up to $17 million next year by modernizing its inefficient bureaucracy, a report by Supt. Sid Thompson said Thursday.

The savings would come from streamlining operations and applying the computer age to antiquated business practices, said William Magee, the district’s newly appointed finance czar.

“We have an organization that is basically in the ‘60s from a standpoint of systems operations,” said Magee, a retired Atlantic Richfield Co. finance executive who was hired three months ago to inject business savvy into district operations.

Although the money is a paltry sum compared to the district’s $3.9-billion budget, school officials said it represents some progress in unfettering the Downtown administration, which was described last year in a scathing management audit as slow-moving and inefficient.

“The bottom line is that there is going to be $17 million more on the savings side of our budget,” school board member Mark Slavkin said. “And it’s not just cutting for the sake of cutting. It represents more efficient and more effective operations.”

The largest chunk of the savings--$8 million--comes from running the nation’s largest school busing program more smoothly. Costly old buses were replaced with newer buses and the surplus vehicles were sold. An alarm system was installed so that security guards are no longer needed in the garage.

District officials intend to save $4.7 million by reducing workers’ compensation claims and creating a program to get employees back to work quicker. Another $2.6 million can be saved by consolidating some business operations, the report said.

The savings are largely earmarked by law for special programs such as integration and magnet schools and will not be available for general education uses, officials said.

The report, presented to the Board of Education’s Audit Committee, provided a broad snapshot of how Thompson intends to streamline downtown operations and how he will reshape the district in the coming months as a massive reform effort continues.

The district’s overall goal is to break apart the downtown bureaucracy so that more decision-making power can be turned over to schools. But that requires scores of changes in the way the district does business, some that are difficult for longtime employees to embrace.

Although computerized information is at the fingertips of employees in major corporations, the Los Angeles school district is only now moving to install districtwide computer access to information, from student enrollment to budget figures.

The change is taxing for employees used to working with reams of paper. During a committee meeting Thursday, board members and staff talked anecdotally about employees who had computerized information within their reach, but insisted on printing out mounds of paper to keep at their desks.

“It’s the culture of the system that says I don’t feel comfortable unless I have paper around,” said Slavkin, Audit Committee chairman.

Magee stressed that changing the system, especially at a time of limited resources, will take time, but that employees and staff must be open to new ideas.

Several ideas included in the report called for creating teams of traveling janitors that a school could contract with to deal with one of the most persistent campus problems: keeping classrooms clean. Also, the district should expand a small program that now brings name-brand fast food to high school lunch grounds to keep down cafeteria costs and bring more appealing meals to kids.

“We are a very insulated organization,” Magee said. “We need to be looking at other ways to do things.”