Trustees Find Cuts to Budget Difficult

The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday painfully approved dozens of budget cuts for next year, raising class sizes in fourth through 12th grades, slashing administrative offices and limiting maintenance of campuses.

After a contentious, 12-hour meeting, cuts totaled about $384.6 million--7.4% of the district’s $5.2-billion general fund budget.

Board members said they may have to find another $44 million in trims later this month to balance the books of the nation’s second-largest school district.

Trustees approved on a 4-3 vote the controversial proposal by Supt. Roy Romer to increase average class sizes in fourth through 12th grades by one or two students, bringing many classes to 40 or more. That will save about $48 million.

Romer conceded that those measures would hurt the Los Angeles Unified School District’s progress in improving academic achievement just as it anticipates adding 12,500 students next year to its current 736,000 enrollment.

“It would be foolish for me to say we’re going to cut 400 million bucks from this budget and promise that things are going to improve,” Romer told the school board Tuesday. But he said there were no alternatives.

Board President Caprice Young and trustees Marlene Canter, Genethia Hayes and Mike Lansing voted to increase class sizes, while Jose Huizar, Julie Korenstein and David Tokofsky voted no.

Immediately after the vote, Tokofsky questioned whether board members violated the state’s open meetings law by talking during a dinner break and changing their prior no votes in favor of the measure.

The board had voted earlier in the day 6 to 1 against increasing class sizes, with Young voting yes.

“I’d like to register concern about the change that occurred during the 45-minute [dinner] break,” Tokofsky said.

Young said she spoke to two other board members about the class-size issue but didn’t talk with a majority of board members.

The other cuts approved Tuesday would, among other things, increase the size of special education classes and double the number of students, to 20, in remedial classes for failing second-graders. Funds to restore gardening and custodian positions will not be available. .

The board voted down some of Romer’s other proposals to target funding for secondary school counselors, library aides, arts programs and extra assistant principals at crowded campuses.

Romer originally proposed $459 million in reductions, allowing for about a $31-million cushion if the board voted against some of his ideas. In all, $428 million worth of cuts would represent 8% of the district’s $5.2-billion general fund budget.

The district is in its worst financial bind in a decade because costs have risen for special education, workers’ compensation and legal services, officials said. In addition, the district gave teachers an average 11.5% raise last year.

School districts throughout the state, experts say, face similar predicaments--though on much smaller scales than Los Angeles. The funding problems have been exacerbated by a weaker economy, resulting in the state delivering less than what districts said they needed in education funding.

L.A. Unified already has pared nearly $110 million from its budget this school year, taking $59 million directly from schools and the rest from administration.

“School districts, like all public agencies, are facing double-digit increases in costs. It is a very devastating challenge for schools,” said Kevin Gordon, executive director of the California Assn. of School Business Officials.

“When you are in L.A. Unified, everything is magnified because of the sheer size.”

District officials said they do not expect layoffs, but hundreds of teachers and other employees likely will be transferred into new jobs as their current positions are eliminated.

New nurses, counselors and others said they did not believe the no-layoff assurances, and feared that their jobs will be eliminated as senior colleagues bump them in an upcoming shuffle.

Leaders of the Los Angeles teachers union, meanwhile, said the anticipated 4% cut to schools’ spending will slice important services such as nursing, psychologists and social workers.

“Please don’t be fooled into thinking that there’s enough discretionary money to buy back the cuts you are making,” Becki Robinson, a vice president of United Teachers-Los Angeles, told the board.

“These funds already purchase school nurses, psychologists, computer lab teachers and professional development activities.”

The school board agonized over many cuts, particularly those affecting low-performing and year-round schools in the district’s most crowded areas.

The board refused to cut extra principals at these schools as Romer had recommended in hopes of savings of $2.9 million. They also rejected another plan to take $5 million in discretionary money from year-round campuses.

“I will not support cuts to classrooms and school sites that disproportionately impact our most overcrowded, lowest-performing schools,” said board Vice President Huizar.

“The school district is headed in a direction that would further perpetuate a separate and unequal learning environment within LAUSD.”

The board started by cutting about $36 million from the budgets of its central administration and 11 local divisions--about 8% of their respective budgets.

One of the local superintendents from the San Fernando Valley said her subdistrict’s cuts will force the elimination of teacher coaches and an attendance counselor who helps truants and dropouts return to school.

“We can’t afford to take additional cuts beyond this and do the jobs we’ve been asked to do,” said Judy Burton, superintendent for the central and eastern San Fernando Valley.

Romer noted that many of the local districts have just one secretary to answer calls from as many as 60 schools.

School board member Hayes also voiced concerns about the cuts to the local districts, which lost funding this year in the previous round of budget reductions.

“I’m very worried about cutting these positions and moving ahead with reforms and holding our schools accountable,” Hayes said.

Romer said some of Tuesday’s cuts could be reversed if the school district receives $70 million in anticipated funds from the state for low-performing schools.

School principals will start assembling their own budgets in the coming weeks. But the school board expects to make deeper cuts after Gov. Gray Davis releases a revised state budget later this month.