SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Cuts of $4 Million for Schools Foreseen

Capistrano Unified School District trustees were told this week that $4 million will probably have to be cut from the next annual budget because of reductions in state revenue. The district’s current budget is $112 million.

It will now be up to the board, with the guidance of Supt. Jerome R. Thornsley and his staff, to decide which programs will be pared or eliminated. Making matters more difficult, the district’s contracts with its employee unions are expired and salary negotiations are under way.

No trustee wanted to speculate about which programs may be axed--specifics will probably begin trickling out next month--but no one doubts that the cuts are coming.

“It’s kind of a frightening time for the school district and the board,” Board President Paul B. Haseman said. “We try to have good educational programs for the children, but some are going to have to be cut. It’s not a question of will we cut, it’s only a question of which will we cut.”

“I know a lot of the public is going to say, ‘Cut the fat,’ ” said Trustee Annette B. Gude. “But we are truly one district that doesn’t have any fat to cut. If we start making cuts, it is going to hurt programs that are beneficial to the children.”

The district, like most districts in the state, is concerned because of Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposal to give the state’s public schools $2 billion less in fiscal year 1991-92 than they are entitled to under Proposition 98. Passed by voters in 1988, Proposition 98 guarantees that elementary and secondary education will receive 40% of the state’s budget. Wilson wants the Legislature to suspend the measure and give education 37% of the coming budget.

Wilson said this is necessary because the state faces a potential $7-billion deficit.

“Do I like the governor’s proposal? No,” Trustee Crystal Kochendorfer said. “When the people passed Proposition 98, it was an expression by the people that they wanted the bulk of their tax dollars to go to education. I know that the governor has some tough choices, but I hope that if Proposition 98 is suspended, it will be a temporary situation.”

Trustee E.G. (Ted) Kopp said he is uncertain whether Wilson’s proposal to suspend the proposition will pass.

“That is going to be a big fight in Sacramento, particularly in the education community,” Kopp said. He said that if the cuts are made, the district’s employees may have to receive smaller raises than they will easily accept.

“Employees only see the short term, but the board has to look at the long term,” he said.

Ric Stephenson, president of the Capistrano Unified Education Assn., the teachers’ union, said his group will listen to the district’s negotiators before deciding how to proceed in negotiations.

He doubts that there will be layoffs of employees.

“Being a growing district, we are going to need teachers,” he said. “But I agree (with the board), some programs are going to have to be re-evaluated, and some will be lost. But it’s the students who will be losing the most.”