School board decides to delay budget cut vote

Andrew Edwards

With the jobs of 38 teachers up in the air, the Huntington Beach City

School District board delayed a vote on budget cuts Tuesday after

Supt. Gary Rutherford revised proposals to reduce funding for next

school year.

Potential layoff notices were sent to 38 teachers on Friday, Asst.

Supt. For Human Resources Kathy Kessler said.

Last week, the board voted to allow layoff warning slips to be

sent to 28 teachers. Ten additional notices were sent because an

expected decline in enrollment means the district will not need as

many teachers next school year, Kessler said.

Many of those teachers may not lose their jobs, but the district

is required to give notice if those teachers may be let go. Leaders

of the district’s teachers’ union said they won’t accept layoffs and

pay cuts to pay for programs like class size reduction -- a program

they otherwise support.

“If it’s going to come to class size or teachers’ salaries, it’s

going to come to class size,” said Steve Harvey, one of two union

presidents.

While the union has a vested interest in saving the jobs, it does

not want to set a precedent for the district to cut pay to fill

budget holes, co-President Kari Penso said.

Rutherford presented modifications to cuts that were introduced in

February. He told the board it would be possible to juggle funding to

keep librarians and two positions at middle schools for teachers on

special assignment, although to save librarians other programs will

need to be cut. One such cut would include reducing the number of

health aides from eight, with one at each elementary school, to five.

The district expects to receive additional state funding for a

second certified nurse, and at least one person in each school office

will have CPR training, Rutherford said.

School board member Shirley Carey said she was very reluctant,

however, to approve a cut to the district’s health services, since

children with illnesses like diabetes require special attention.

“There are so many major healthcare issues,” she said. “I think we

increase our liability a whole lot.”

Rutherford did not alter the proposed cut to class size reduction

for next year, in confidence that parents collecting donations to

save the program would succeed.

He also recommended the school board keep the program in place for

the 2005-06 school year, and make any necessary future budget cuts

from other sources.

“We’ll look for other mechanisms to fund that program,” Rutherford

said.

In addition to the Community for Class Size Reduction group that

has been fundraising to keep small classes in the districts, several

parents have spoken at board meetings in the past month and a half to

express their support for the program.

School board President Robert Mann said expressing the district’s

desire to keep the program alive could communicate to the public that

district officials agree small classes are important.

“This would signal to the people who have been raising the money

... that the district does have a commitment to class size

reduction,” he said.

Members of the group have said they expect to have to work for

class size reduction until the California budget stabilizes and

district funding is on steadier ground.

If parents succeed in raising enough funds, 26 teachers who

received layoff notices will still have jobs.

The group has collected more than $177,000 so far, they said.

The board’s next scheduled meeting is on April 8. By waiting to

vote on Rutherford’s new ideas, the board can receive public input

before making a decision, Trustee Catherine McGough said.

“It gives people opportunity to write letters and give some

response,” she said.