Schools struggling with cuts

In a cheery classroom decorated with posters exhorting students to “Dive into a Good Book,” four first-graders, who are struggling to read, recited words ending with the “ang” sound -- bang, rang, sang, fang, gang. The Foothill Ranch Elementary School students used their index fingers to trace the letters into squares of felt and carpet, imprinting the connection between the letters and the sound into their minds.

The Language Arts Assistance Program has helped a generation of struggling youngsters in this Orange County suburb become skilled readers. But it, along with sports teams, small classes and school librarians, may vanish next year as Saddleback Valley Unified School District officials trim $13 million in spending for the upcoming school year.

Under the budget approved by the state Thursday, schools and community colleges will be forced to cut $7.4 billion from their budgets this year and $3.2 billion next year. And a $787-billion federal economic stimulus package that is expected to send billions to school districts isn’t enough to backfill deficits, educators say.

“It doesn’t look good for us,” said instructor Tina Hatch, 52, who teaches the reading program designed for pupils in first, second and third grades. “It’s very sad because these kids definitely will fall through the cracks if there’s not a program like this.”

Because of reduced state funding, school districts across the state are dealing with such difficult decisions. They have been cutting spending annually in recent years, but prior trims -- slimming the administrative staff, cutting back on maintenance, reducing the cleaning schedule -- were mostly invisible to students and parents.

But now, in many places the low-hanging fruit is gone, and educators are left with painful cuts that reach directly into classrooms, including widespread teacher layoffs, increasing class sizes and the eliminations of music, sports and other programs that are not mandated by state and federal law. And that includes Saddleback’s reading-intervention program.

“You’re very definitely going to feel the pinch in the classroom because there’s no place else to go anymore,” said Saddleback Supt. Steven Fish, whose school board also is considering closing a neighborhood elementary school and trimming its International Baccalaureate program. “The list isn’t long enough. I need more.”

The state budget offers school districts greater flexibility to spend so-called categorical funds, which in the past have been earmarked for such specific items as textbook purchases.

Funds earmarked for limiting class sizes in kindergarten through third grades, however, were preserved for that purpose, a victory for the teachers unions and a blow to some local district officials who had been calling for greater flexibility in using that money.

An earlier proposal by the governor to shave five days from the school year was eliminated from the final package but will probably be raised again in the spring.

“This budget will result in real cuts to real students in the classroom,” said Jack O’Connell, the state superintendent of public instruction. “These reductions will be felt and seen.”

A spokesman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said given the state’s fiscal crisis, state officials did the best they could to protect students.

“Probably more than any other sector of the budget, we went to great lengths to ensure that K-12 schools and community colleges had the greatest amount of flexibility and relief possible in what is the worst budget year in memory,” said H.D. Palmer, state deputy director for external affairs. “By definition, closing a $41.6-billion budget gap is going to create difficult decisions. We tried to minimize how difficult those decisions were for” schools.

In Los Angeles Unified, the state’s largest school district, officials expect to slash about $800 million in spending for the next 18 months. District officials have yet to disclose how they expect to close this budget gap, but it is hard to imagine a scenario that won’t affect the district’s nearly 700,000 students. Layoffs are likely.

“I will be recommending cuts the likes of which this district has never seen,” said Supt. Ramon C. Cortines at a recent meeting.

Teachers must be warned by March 15 if they will face layoffs, but already districts have decided to send more than 12,000 pink slips to tenured and probationary teachers across the state, the most ever seen this soon before the deadline, said David Sanchez, president of the California Teachers Assn.

The budget, he said, “was balanced on the backs of the students of the state of California.”

In Hayward, school trustees voted earlier this month not to participate in the state’s class-size reduction program and will boost class sizes in kindergarten through third grades, from the current maximum of 20 students per teacher to between 30 and 34 pupils per class. The move will allow the district to eliminate 120 teachers, saving $2.7 million annually.

“We just couldn’t afford it anymore,” said Val Joyner, spokeswoman for the 20,000-student district.

In Azusa, district officials decided this month to issue layoff warnings to 116 teachers -- a dent in their efforts to cut $16.8 million from their annual $100-million budget.

“We’re already running lean and mean,” said Kathleen Miller, spokeswoman for the 11,100-student district. “Every program will probably be affected in some way.”

Districts throughout the state are shutting neighborhood schools. In the West Contra Costa Unified School District, which must cut tens of millions of dollars over the next three years, trustees decided earlier this month to close four schools.

“Closing schools is difficult at best but unfortunately necessary,” wrote district Supt. Bruce Harter in an open letter in January. “No one in our community, especially our board of education members and I, wants to close schools.”

He also warned of “substantial layoffs” in the upcoming school year.

“Last year, we cut $6.4 million from the budget by keeping the impact away from the classroom,” Harter said. “We won’t be able to do that this year. Every part of our district will feel the pain.”

In the Atwater Elementary School District, which is cutting counselors and reading coaches as part of its effort to trim $2.5 million from its $37.5-million budget, Supt. Melinda Hennes agreed with Harter.

“Last year, we approached our cuts with a focus on what can we eliminate and still provide quality services to our students,” said Hennes, whose district serves 4,600 K-8 students. “This year, it’s a whole different way of looking at things -- what do we have to have, what do we have to keep in order to keep our doors open for kids.”

At Foothill Ranch, meanwhile, the budget problems weren’t far from the adults’ minds as the children practiced phonics.

“Teaching everybody, to me, is not a choice. It’s a responsibility to make sure we do the best we can for all students,” said Adele Walsh, a district reading specialist who supervises the Language Arts Assistance Program, which serves 1,000 students in 26 schools throughout the nearly 34,000-student district. “You have to intervene early and not wait until they’re so far behind.”

Eliminating the program would save more than $522,000 annually.

The program definitely has its boosters.

“I like reading about . . . people and animals,” said Charlotte Baldi, 6, adding that she’s “100% faster!”

Lisa Brosnan, a Rancho Santa Margarita mother whose 8-year-old twin boys went through the reading program last year and are now successful readers, said: “I feel sorry for our school district, all the districts, because they just have to put up with so much, just trying to keep the basics. It’s just really sad; we live in such a beautiful state, and we have to worry about stuff like this.”

seema.mehta@latimes.com

Times staff writer Jason Song contributed to this report.