Bankruptcy Will Have Subtle Effect on Schools : Education: Fallout won’t be as severe as first feared, but it will hurt curriculum development, supplies and other areas.

When public school students return to classes in September, signs of the county bankruptcy probably won’t be dramatic as once thought.

Despite fears earlier this year that the financial crisis would result in massive teacher layoffs and the closure of some campuses, even the hardest-hit schools districts have managed to largely spare both academic and extracurricular programs from the budget ax.

But in a variety of more subtle ways, educators said that the bankruptcy has left a lasting mark.

In some districts, plans to bring computers and other high-technology equipment into classrooms have been stalled. Dozens of veteran teachers have opted for early retirement, creating what one official described as an “experience gap” at some campuses.

Students will return to schools staffed with fewer psychologists, teaching assistants, custodians and clerical workers.

Just as significant, some officials said, is the way the financial crisis has dominated the focus of school districts, diverting attention from other pressing matters, from fund-raising to new curriculum.

“This has really been a lost year for us,” said Michael S. Simons, president of the Huntington Beach Union High School District Board of Trustees. “The whole district has come to a screeching halt. So much time has been spent dealing with the bankruptcy. . . . We’re just now trying to get the momentum back.”

School leaders said that sparing existing classroom programs has come at the expense of developing innovative educational ideas for the future.

“We’re not going to be able to keep pace with the changes that are out there,” said Margie Wakeham, a trustee with the Irvine Unified School District. “Students are not going to have what my kids had when they went through this school district.”

Despite these concerns, most officials agreed that schools are on a more secure footing now than in the frantic weeks following the county’s Dec. 6 bankruptcy.

At the time, some districts with money in the county’s collapsed investment pool considered Draconian cuts--from selling school sites to eliminating sports and arts classes--as a way of making up for the losses.

Under an investment pool settlement approved last month, school districts will receive 90% of their money in cash and recovery notes, with the rest promised by the county at an unspecified date.

The settlement saved some of the hardest-hit districts from insolvency. But it also forced all school systems to balance their budgets without access to 10% of their pool money.

Some districts simply used reserve money to cover the loss. Many bridged the budget gap by reducing travel budgets, supply expenses and other non-classroom items.

The most significant cutbacks have occurred in about a dozen school districts, including five that borrowed a total of more than $200 million to invest in the county pool.

The Irvine Unified School District appears to be hardest hit by the bankruptcy. The district has sent notices of possible layoff to 30 administrators, 120 teachers and 95 classified employees, though officials said they hoped most of those positions will be vacated through attrition and early retirements.

While classroom programs remain intact, funding for school supplies was cut by 10%. Campuses will have to survive with fewer teachers’ assistants and custodians and less support from the district’s administrative office, where more than half of the district’s budget cuts were focused.

Educators will turn to parents and community members to help fund many extracurricular activities, including drama and musical presentations and field trips.

“We’ll be asking parents for . . . help with school supplies,” added Jean Fritzsche, a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher at Irvine’s University Park Elementary School. “It’s going to be a challenge.”

The district has lost 25 teachers so far this year to early retirement. Three elementary school principals plan to leave, including El Camino Real Principal Gene Bedley, a leader in “value-based” education, an author and former National PTA educator of the year.

Irvine Teachers Assn. President Steve Garretson said that while openings provide some opportunities, they also leave “big shoes to fill.”

Other districts are feeling the pinch as well. The Newport-Mesa Unified School District eliminated five psychologist positions, leaving the district with a total of 12. The district also laid off 10 non-teaching employees and slashed its budget for school supplies and equipment.

The Santa Ana Unified School District is expected to postpone plans to add a seventh period in intermediate schools. Parents have been pushing to add the extra period, which was eliminated several years ago in a cost-cutting move.

Several school systems, including the Huntington Beach High School District, Centralia School District and Anaheim Union High School District, have postponed or canceled planned purchases of more than $1 million worth of computers, modems, laser printers, CD-ROM drives and other high-technology equipment.

School officials lamented the cuts, saying they come at a time when students need technology training to succeed in the job market and in higher education.

“You want the students to have these advantages that will move them into the 21st Century,” said Huntington Beach Union High School District trustee Bonnie Bruce. “Technology is something the community has identified as a top priority. You don’t want to put that on hold.”

In Irvine, school officials hoped to raise $10 million for a state-of-the-art computer network by seeking donations from residents and local businesses.

Called “Foundations for the Future,” its goal was to link all schools to each other and to universities, libraries and even students’ homes. It was considered a prototype program for incorporating new technology into public schools and had attracted the attention of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

But after the county declared bankruptcy, the plan was put in mothballs and contracts with the fund-raising consultants overseeing the program were allowed to expire.

“Technology was one of the things we had to put on the back burner,” interim Supt. Dean Waldfogel said. “The more we reduce district-level services, the more we are focused on basic survival.”

Times correspondent Alan Eyerly contributed to this report.