District:

The Huntington Beach City School District has unveiled a three-year budget plan to meet the state’s fiscal demands by increasing class sizes, reducing programs and laying off employees.

The district board of trustees discussed the proposed budget cuts at a packed board meeting Tuesday. The school district is working to meet the state’s demand to create a balanced budget and faces a $21-million deficit over the next three years if it doesn’t make cuts to the budget.

“Our obligation to educate children has not changed. They are still requiring we do that,” Jon Archibald, assistant superintendent of administrative services, said at the meeting. “We have a balancing act to do between program and how we are going to compensate our employees.”

The district’s current budget’s contractual obligations alone, if sustained, would exceed Huntington’s revenue, he said.

“We can’t afford to have the same employees in the same positions at the same rates of pay and not have to close our doors,” Archibald said.

The school proposed reducing a variety of programs like the home-to-school transportation, which the trustees have already approved, and eliminating zero period at middle schools.

To help balance the budget, first- and second-grade class sizes are proposed to rise to 24-1 next school year and to 30-1 in 2010-11. Archibald projected the increase to save the school more than $500,000 in its first year.

The budget discussed had a number of employee reductions and eliminations and, possibly, compensation adjustments for teachers.

“I feel like it was ‘Do you want to amputate your left foot or your right foot?’, but now it’s both all the way up to the knee,” district trustee Ceila Jaffe said.

The option to return to full-day kindergarten classes was discussed to try and increase revenue by upping enrollment. Classes are currently being split into morning and afternoon classes.

The longer class time will give students more time to learn, but increase class size from 15-1 to 30-1, officials said in the meeting.

Tuesday’s meeting was a discussion of the budget cuts and possible budget plan.

The district board of trustees is slated to vote to approve the budget June 23.

Peterson Elementary School fifth-grade teacher Linda Perkins, who attended the meeting, said that although all the cuts are going to be hard, teachers are trying to stay positive.

“It’s tough times, and tough decisions are going to be made,” Perkins said. “The community needs to know we’re doing the best we can with what we have, and so is the school board.”