Laguna Beach Trustees Trim Teacher Layoffs to Total of 13

LAGUNA BEACH —  The school board tentatively decided Thursday night not to rehire 13 of this district’s approximately 120 teachers for the coming school year.

The decision capped months of waiting for 33 teachers in the financially beleaguered district who received notices in March telling them they might soon be out of work. Some of the teachers have already taken jobs at other districts.

“It’s been terrible,” said Jeremy Stone-Barger, a fourth-grade teacher at Top of the World Elementary School. “I hope no one in the district ever has to go through this again.”

Stone-Barger was one of several teachers in the audience at the school board meeting, some of whom were still unsure Thursday night whether they would keep their jobs, because trustees did not specify which teachers would be laid off.

As grim as the news was, it was not as bleak as had been expected earlier this year. In March, school officials had estimated that about 24 teachers would ultimately be removed from the payroll.

The Laguna Beach Unified School District has been wrestling for months with a budget crisis brought on largely by dwindling property tax reserves and worsened by losses incurred in the 1993 firestorm and the county’s bankruptcy.

Laguna Beach and the Newport-Mesa unified school districts are the only ones in Orange County that receive funds from property tax revenue rather than from the state, which determines school district revenue based on attendance.

With the school budget shrinking from $13.4 million this year to $11.7 million for 1996-97, the community has rallied to raise funds. Parents, teachers and school officials also have been meeting regularly to define priorities at the district’s four schools in the hope of lessening the effect the budget crunch will have on classrooms.

Parents and teachers have been particularly concerned that classroom sizes will swell and that “enrichment” programs--such as art, music and computer classes--will be lost.

The school board agreed Tuesday to allow each school to identify a top priority and retain it. For example, both El Morro and Top of the World elementary schools were granted the ability to keep class sizes at 27 students and Thurston Middle School was allowed to retain its counselor and a full-time assistant principal.

The board also agreed Tuesday to erase 17 other jobs from the coming year’s budget. Most are clerical workers and teachers’ aides.

Seven top administrators and principals have also agreed to take 5% salary cuts, which will save the district $35,000. Teachers say they will accept wage freezes and changes in benefit packages that will save the district another $400,000.

School officials are predicting the community’s fund-raising efforts will yield $400,000 for the district.

While the numbers are not firm, the added money and reduced expenditures will allow district officials to save some programs they had feared would be lost.

Late Thursday, the board was still discussing which classes, programs or positions might be reinstated. Another special budget meeting will be held Tuesday. A final budget must be approved by June 30.