School Board Juggles Budget Funds : Education: Panel members adjust 1995-96 spending plan to end controversy over poverty grants and promise to protect jobs of teacher’s aides.

The Los Angeles Unified Board of Education adjusted the school district’s 1995-96 budget Monday to address controversy that arose a week ago about allocation of federal poverty mitigation funds.

First, the board promised to protect the jobs of teacher’s aides threatened by a new district formula that spreads $109 million in federal Title I money to more schools.

Then, board members opted not to divert $1.2 million of that funding to LEARN training, instead dipping into the district’s general fund to finance that reform effort. LEARN is a reform plan that would give individual schools more control over their budgets and management.

Concern about Title I arose June 5, when the school board discovered during discussion of its $4.3-billion budget that a formula intended to include children of the working poor--not just those on welfare--had increased the number of qualifying schools by 38%, to 443, but also reduced the amount most schools receive.

Board members were caught off guard by the change, made to conform to new federal goals, saying they did not understand its implications when they approved it in February.

“Our style has always been, before we make major decisions, to let a whole bunch of people . . . come down here and talk,” said board member Warren Furutani. “This one we made a decision on without understanding some of the downside.”

The Title 1 application, which is to be reviewed by the State Board of Education next month, will include two-thirds of the district’s schools because of two eligibility changes: The number of students eating subsidized lunches supplanted welfare as the main criterion for determining which schools should get the supplement, and the percentage of qualifying students required for inclusion of a school was dropped to 60% from 75%.

To repair some of the resulting damage, the board voted Monday to allocate about $18 million in additional Title I money to the 300 schools expected to lose funds this year. That cushion was made available because of anticipated federal budget cuts that did not materialize.

Although schools would be able to decide how to spend that money, Walter Backstrom, executive director of the union that represents teacher’s aides and community liaisons, said he considered it a reprieve.

“At least now the employees know that something’s going to happen,” Backstrom said. “That would ensure us that employees can be kept on staff for at least nine more months.”

A week earlier, Backstrom had said members of the Service Employees International Union, Local 99, would suffer the brunt of cutbacks caused by the formula change.

Overall, only 235 of the part-time positions would be lost, according to district tallies. But Backstrom estimated that 1,000 or more of his workers would be laid off at schools weathering cuts, while new aides would be hired at the 122 added Title I schools.

Schools tend to hire teacher’s aides and community workers from surrounding neighborhoods and, unlike teachers, there is no contractual requirement that laid-off aides be given priority for openings elsewhere in the district.

A portion of LEARN funding had gotten caught in the debate over aides when Backstrom complained that the board should not be diverting any Title I money to other uses when jobs were at stake.

On Monday, the board opted to double the general fund contribution to $2.4 million, instead of taking half that from Title I. The additional $7.6 million needed for LEARN training and evaluation would come from a combination of other public and private funds.

Maria Casillas, president of the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project, said that based on the board’s commitment, she would begin the process of releasing nearly $5 million the private philanthropic foundation has promised for LEARN this year.

But Casillas also warned Los Angeles Unified board members that the foundation’s benefactor, Walter Annenberg, wants a signed agreement re-establishing their commitment to eventually bring all 700 district schools into LEARN.

Currently, LEARN is in various stages at 89 schools and 103 more are to begin training this summer.

Individual schools also will have to compete for their money by submitting spending proposals to the foundation, Casillas said.

“Walter Annenberg is a private foundation, this is his money and he wants assurances,” she said.