Torrance Schools Cut $2.56 Million; 70 Jobs Slashed : Budget: "Worst ever" cuts for district OKd despite pleas from teachers at two grueling board meetings.

By DEBORAH SCHOCH

Feb. 28, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

The Torrance Unified School District is preparing to send layoff notices to dozens of employees after school trustees this week carved $2.56 million from next year’s budget and abolished 70 jobs.

The effects will be felt throughout the district next year, and would be mitigated only if more state funding materializes, school officials said. The cut leaves the district with a $77 million budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

Under the budget, which still faces a final vote, class size will swell in the four high schools and six middle schools. Librarians will be at each high school only two periods daily. Children in kindergarten through fifth grade will lose their vocal music teachers. And only four registered nurses will serve the district’s 19,600 students, compared with 12 nurses today.

School board members spent nearly nine hours abolishing jobs and programs in packed meetings Monday and Tuesday that lasted long into the night.

“In the 24 years I’ve been on the board, the cuts this year were the worst ever,” said Trustee Owen Griffith.

School Supt. Edward J. Richardson, referring to the total of $5.4 million the district cut from budgets for this year and next, said: “These are the two worst years, at least in the past 20, 25--or maybe in the history of the district.”

Trustees approved virtually all the cuts recommended by the administration. They did make two changes, saving four high school counselors’ jobs and keeping instrumental music instruction for students in kindergarten through fifth grade, the same pupils who lost their vocal music teachers.

District records show the 70 abolished jobs include positions for 33 teachers, five clerical workers, six language arts specialists, nine maintenance workers, eight nurses and six administrators, including four assistant principals.

The board soundly rejected a proposal from Trustee John L. Eubanks to reduce the salary increases for administrators and managers from 3% to 1%, saving an estimated $150,000.

And, after administrators vehemently objected, the board dropped a plan to save $70,000 in substitute teacher costs by requiring 50 school-based administrators to teach in the classroom once every two weeks.

Eubanks said later that administration was cut less deeply than other areas. This criticism is shared by some teachers, said William A. Franchini, executive director of the Torrance Teachers Assn.

“The perception among the teaching staff is that the administration did not suffer cuts to the extent that the other operations of the district experienced, from teaching staff to maintenance,” Franchini said.

The 19,600-student district hopes to minimize layoffs by using attrition and retirement to thin employee ranks. “A lot of these people won’t be losing their jobs,” said district spokesman J. Richard Ducar.

The cuts were made to close an anticipated $2.6-million deficit in the preliminary district budget for 1991-92, caused by expected cutbacks in state funding and commitments to raise salaries. The decision had to be made this week because of a legal requirement that teachers and administrators must be notified in March or they cannot be laid off in the following school year.

Board members urged those opposed to the cuts to write their state legislators to assure improved state funding for California schools.

Trustees were visibly drained Tuesday night after two nights of hearing dramatic appeals for leniency from teachers warning that students would suffer if programs were cut.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, Richard K. Moore, Torrance High School librarian for the past 17 years, stirred scattered applause from the audience with an emotional speech asking the board not to reduce the number of high school librarians.

Moore recalled how, as a Torrance High School student in the 1960s, he used the library and was helped by the librarian. Today, students visit the library at Torrance High School at least 27,000 times each year, he said.

Moore, who would be forced to take a teaching position, said Wednesday that he plans to look for a librarian’s job elsewhere.

Instrumental music teacher Betty Jo Ravitz sat through two nights of meetings after learning Monday that both vocal and instrumental music were in danger of being cut in the elementary schools. A written report from the district last week had not indicated that the instrumental program would be eliminated.

“When you cut instruction in the lower schools, pretty soon you have nothing to parade down the street” in the high schools, Ravitz said.

Finally, late Tuesday night, the board voted to retain the instrumental program and save three teaching jobs. But the elementary vocal music program was abolished, along with three other teaching jobs, to save $102,000.

The board also reshuffled staffing at the high schools. That’s where the four assistant principals were eliminated and the stipends for 52 department chairmen. In their place, the board created 16 new “instructional dean” posts at a cost of $168,000, for a net saving of $184,000.

The last round of cuts reduced the number of high school and middle school teachers, meaning that many classes will be larger next year, though no class-size figures were available Wednesday.

Franchini unsuccessfully urged the board to consider cuts in elementary and middle school transportation in lieu of increasing class size in the middle and high schools. But board members said students’ safety would be put at risk if bus transportation was not available.

One theme that resurfaced several times during the marathon meetings was whether administra tive costs could be further shaved.

Eubanks on Monday added several items to the proposed list of cuts, including a proposal to reduce administrative salary increases, have administrators teach a period a day at their schools and be available to substitute once every two weeks to reduce spending on substitute teachers.

Only one item--the substitute proposal--was passed Monday. And after fierce lobbying it was revoked the following night.

And the proposal to limit administrative salaries was defeated 4-1 after the board discussed it in closed session.

Administrators are slated to get the same percentage raises negotiated for teachers and clerical and technical employees: 1% retroactive to last July 1 and another 2% effective in January or February.

The board approved those raises Monday. Supt. Richardson’s total salary, including seniority increments, will be $99,633 in 1991-92, based on figures provided to the board. Four assistant superintendents will earn at least $78,252 before seniority increments.

Teachers start at $25,620 annually and can earn up to $49,542 after 20 years with advanced degrees.

Eubanks said limiting management raises seemed a logical and even-handed way to save money. He pointed to another cut, in which the district saved $10,000 by reducing four head custodians to custodians, and said: “We don’t see that being applied across the board. . . . You didn’t see any suggestions of higher-level cuts like that.”

But board President David Sargent said the district traditionally tries to give the same percentage raises to all employees, adding that Torrance administrators’ salaries are at or below the median for comparable districts.

Administrators have already negotiated their raises, and Eubanks’ proposal to limit those raises would “essentially be blindsiding the process,” Sargent said.

TRIMMING THE TORRANCE SCHOOLS BUDGET

The Torrance Unified School District this week approved $2.56 million in cutbacks to close a projected deficit in the district’s preliminary 1991-92 budget. Following is a list of the staffing and program cuts that were approved: Proposal and Amount saved

Change grades 9 to 12 teacher-student ratio from 1:27 to 1:28.5 (11 teacher positions cut): $374,000

Change grades 7 to 8 teacher-student ratio from 1:27 to 1:28 (4 teacher positions cut): 136,000

Reduce central office administration (2 positions cut): 100,000

Reduce district office clerical staff (5 positions cut): 130,000

Reduce district maintenance and operations (9 positions cut): 360,000

Demote head custodians to custodians: 10,000

Abolish K-5 vocal music program (3 teacher positions cut): 102,000

Reduce number of 9th-grade English classes (4 teacher positions cut): 140,000

Reduce home and hospital program (2 positions cut): 70,000

Reduce special education staffing (1 adaptive P.E. teacher position cut): 55,000

Reduce psychology services (1 psychologist position cut): 60,000

Moratorium on staff development (1 teacher position cut): 90,000