Decision on More School Cuts Is Put Off

Facing hard decisions about budget cuts and the future of its subdistrict structure, the Los Angeles school board on Tuesday night again postponed any decisions.

The almost three-hour discussion focused in large part on the 11 subdistricts, which were created four years ago to reduce the district’s central bureaucracy. Those subdistricts have been criticized by the teachers union, which calls them a waste of resources and a symbol of bloated, out-of-control administration.

In recent months, as the board has authorized a spate of budget cuts and the elimination of 480 nonteaching jobs, United Teachers-Los Angeles President John Perez has called for the elimination of the local districts. On Tuesday, he lumped them into what he called “the fat in the district’s budget.”

Each subdistrict oversees a student population of 50,000 to 80,000 and has a total budget of between $8 million and $12 million.

On Tuesday, Supt. Roy Romer proposed to further cut the general fund budgets of the local districts by 10% -- in addition to 18% in previous cuts -- but said he needed the subdistrict structure to oversee the L.A. Unified School District’s plans to build 160 schools in the next few years.

“I believe that we are in a position that we need to be very economical,” said Romer after presenting his plan to reduce the budgets, but not the size, of the districts. “But we don’t need to jump off a cliff and destroy or take apart the infrastructure of the district.”

Debate among board members was heated. Some supported Romer’s proposal and making more cuts in the 2004-05 budget; others proposed scrapping the local district structure in favor of separate divisions for elementary, middle and high schools. But all agreed that the district was facing a financial crisis.

The district must cut about $500 million from its 2004-05 budget to address a projected shortfall from the state budget. So far, about $477 million has been trimmed.

The board postponed further discussion on how to make more cuts until Thursday.

Also Tuesday, the board granted Granada Hills Charter High School a five-year renewal for its charter.

Granada Hills, which had among the best academic records in the district, became a charter school last May. At the time, board members granted the school a one-year charter because they wanted to develop a comprehensive strategy on creation and supervision of charters districtwide. So far, no such strategy has been developed.