Schools Cut Budget by $5.1 Million, OK Staff Layoffs : Schools: Class size will also increase. Custodial and grounds-keeping staffs will be hit the hardest.

By HOWARD BLUME

April 30, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

LONG BEACH — The school board has approved $5.1 million in budget cuts that will increase the size of high school classes and reduce library, nursing and counseling services as well as custodial and grounds-keeping staffs. Up to two dozen non-teaching employees face layoffs.

“These cuts will affect the quality of the education we can provide to young people,” board member Jenny Oropeza said after the Monday meeting. “It’s pretty depressing to be in education in California these days.”

The cutbacks will decrease next year’s projected budget by nearly 2%, to about $288.9 million. The state’s fourth-largest school district also endured budget cuts the previous two years.

The layoffs will hit custodians and groundskeepers the hardest. The custodial staff must shrink by 15, groundskeepers by close to 20. Some positions are currently vacant; a few employees may transfer to other district jobs. The rest will be laid off to meet the reduction targets.

Other employees who face layoffs or transfers include a telephone operator, a tool sharpener, a computer programmer and two spending analysts.

The library, nursing, counseling and vocal music staffs will shrink by attrition even though district enrollment is expected to rise 3,000 students to an all-time high of about 77,000.

Another cost-cutting move increases the average high school class by one student, from 35 to 36 students. As a result, the district will hire 19 fewer teachers despite the growing enrollment.

Other effects: A training program for new teachers will receive less money, magnet schools will lose a coordinator, and a project to help middle-school students who are at-risk of dropping out will lose part of its funding.

Before voting, board members listened for 2 1/2 hours as two dozen speakers from a crowd of more than 100 lobbied against various cuts and asked for more time to debate alternatives.

The district has lost more than 100 custodial positions in the last three years, and the results are visible, union representative Richard Sharp said. “The graffiti is staying on the walls,” he told the board. “We have to have an environment that looks good so people will feel like going into that environment.”

Finding new jobs would be difficult, he added. “The economy is so bad out there. Anybody without a job . . . they’re going to be without work for awhile.”

Darlene Dunn, president of the union for non-teaching employees, criticized the district for not bringing employees into the budget-cutting process.

Jim Deaton, who represents teachers, expresses concern over cuts--by attrition--to the library, nursing, counseling and the music teaching staffs.

“Attrition says to me that librarians will be spread a little bit thinner, nurses will be spread a little bit thinner, music teachers will be spread a little bit thinner,” he said later. “Does the program suffer? You bet it does. It means kids don’t get the time and attention they need.

“This will all come back and haunt us someday in the future of this country and the citizens we’re producing, or rather the citizens we’re not producing.”

Several speakers urged the board to postpone the vote to consider alternatives.

Board members, however, said they had studied the cuts for weeks and that further debate would not help. They did restore one program and two jobs. They opted to keep the district’s video production team, cutting more groundskeepers instead.

Only board member Oropeza dissented. She voted against the cuts package to protest the loss of additional groundskeepers. “The environment in which kids learn is critical to their ability to learn,” she said.

Supt. E. Tom Giugni noted that the cuts, while painful, were not as deep as in other nearby districts, including Los Angeles Unified and Montebello Unified. Cost-cutting in past years in Long Beach lessened the pain this time around. The school system cut $5.1 million last year and $10.8 million the previous year.

The final budget will be larger in dollars than last year’s, a reflection of the district’s soaring enrollment. For the third consecutive year, however, there will be less to go around per student.

Officials faulted the state for not keeping up with inflation in its funding of schools. Since 1990, costs have increased about 15%, while state funding has risen less than 4%, Deputy Supt. Ron Bennett said. Bennett anticipates no inflation adjustment this year. A continuing recession could force the district into further cuts, he added.

Lottery funds, which typically make up about 3% of a district’s budget, have also declined sharply from $13 million three years ago to an anticipated $5 million next year.

Board members said they sympathized with the hardships created by the cuts but had little alternative.

“If you’ve been in a job five or 15 years, it’s difficult to go out and look for a new job,” board President Bobbie Smith said later. “And we would prefer pleasant, manicured lawns and clean halls . . . but we don’t have that luxury.

“We may have to cut more.”

Balancing the Budget Long Beach Unified School District budget for 1991-92.: $278 million Budget for 1992-93 before cuts.: $294 million Expected revenue for 1992-93.: $288.9 million Needed to cut.: $5.1 million Note: The 1992-93 budget will be larger than the 1991-92 budget because the school district expects to receive additional money as a result of its rapidly increasing enrollment.

Budget Cuts

Reduce the hiring of fourth- and fifth-grade teachers by transferring some students to less-crowded classrooms. Saves hiring 38 teachers.: $1,520,000 Increase high school class size by an average of one student, to about 36 per class.: $760,000 Reduce grounds-keeping services.: $605,000 Reduce custodial services.: $540,000 Freeze the hiring of elementary library, nursing and counseling staffs.: $240,000 Lay off or transfer employees and eliminate jobs in business and educational services, the music program and other offices.: $865,000 Transfer to other funds food expenses and the costs of educating students who leave traditional high schools.: $380,000 Reduce travel.: $17,000 Increase efficiency in transporting athletes to games.: $60,000 Cut 40% of funding for training new teachers.: $100,000 Reduce discretionary funds often used for teacher and staff training.: $50,000 Total: $5,137,000

Source: Long Beach Unified School District