Idea of Closing a High School Gets Cool Reception by Torrance Board

As grim-faced Torrance school trustees on Tuesday contemplated slashing teaching jobs and boosting class size, a teacher’s union spokesman suggested the district study an entirely different approach to its projected multimillion-dollar deficit.

William A. Franchini, executive director of the Torrance Teachers Assn., broached the idea in such a low tone that he was asked to repeat himself.

“Can we afford to have four high schools?” Franchini said, and paused. “See, I tried to ask it real quietly, so that nobody would hear it.”

The trustees laughed, but some moved swiftly to denounce the suggestion.

“I’m not going to close a high school,” retorted Trustee Ann Gallagher, an edge to her voice. “That is not part of my job description.”

And school board President David Sargent added in a Wednesday interview: “A high school campus is just too big of a community asset to go on the block. I just don’t see it happening.”

But the exchange reflected the potential breadth of the current debate in the Torrance Unified School District over how to cut programs and jobs by $2.3 million to $2.6 million to close a projected deficit in the district’s preliminary 1991-92 budget. School officials blame the deficit on cutbacks in state funding.

Franchini had acknowledged in an interview earlier this week that trying to close a school is “political dynamite.”

But he presented that and other budget-cutting suggestions to the school board Tuesday. The district’s current fiscal dilemma, he maintained, is diluting educational quality so badly that the school board should at least study how much money it could save--and pump into education programs--if it shut a high school.

Trustees are expected to decide on cuts in the district’s $79.9-million budget at a special meeting Monday. They will select options from a list of potential reductions totaling $3.2 million drawn up by school administrators. The district is looking at cutting teaching jobs, clerical staff, counselors, nurses and administrators.

Sargent has said he hopes any job reductions can be accomplished by attrition, avoiding teacher layoffs.

Schools Supt. Edward J. Richardson said he still hopes that state funding will not decrease as much as some fear.

“This budget is preparing for the worst,” he said.

Under one proposal, each of the district high schools would be restructured to eliminate a number of jobs and save a total of $332,000. The five-person counseling staff at each school would be cut to four. Librarians would be cut from full time to two periods daily. The number of vice principals would drop from three to two. Department chairmen would be replaced by teachers serving as “instructional deans.”

Another proposal would abolish the music program for students in kindergarten through fifth grade, saving $140,000. Three of the six vocal music teachers would be reassigned; the other three positions would be cut. In their stead, elementary classroom teachers would teach vocal music.

The district is also considering cutting teachers’ positions and enlarging class size in the high schools, middle schools and grades four through six.

For instance, if 16 high school teaching jobs were cut, class size would grow by about two students, and the district could save $520,000, district figures show.

School board members said after reviewing the cuts that they were concerned that education in the district could be seriously undermined by the cuts.

Trustee Owen H. Griffith said it is misleading to think of the cuts as temporary when dealing with educating young people.

And Gallagher said: “I’m sorry we have to do this. . . . Even if we start reinstating these down the line, the damage has been done.”

Although representatives of the district’s three unions spoke against the cuts, few parents attended the meeting.

Franchini, speaking for the teachers’ union, urged the school board to consider some alternatives. He suggested that the idea of closing a high school be considered by a proposed ad hoc committee that is expected to review district facilities and demographic trends.

Closing a high school could save $500,000 to $600,000 yearly in operating costs, he said. And by running three high schools instead of four, the district might be able to offer a broader range of courses in topics such as foreign languages, business education and specialty sciences, he said.

The district could save an additional $170,000 by eliminating two assistant superintendent jobs and having school principals report directly to Supt. Richardson, Franchini said.

He also proposed having school administrators serve as teachers’ substitutes two days a month, which he said could save $75,000 annually.

Louise Lavallee, president of the union representing 168 clerical and technical workers, reminded board members that seven positions were already cut in that unit in October.

And Steve Ragsdale, a spokesman for the Service Employees International Union, Local 99, warned of ill-kept, deteriorating buildings if the district keeps cutting back on maintenance. SEIU represents 250 district maintenance and operations workers.

Ten district nurses attended the meeting, upset by a proposal that would slash the number of district nurses from 12 to eight and replace them with nurse assistants.

The current budget crunch represents the third time in a year that the school board has been faced with cutting programs and jobs. During two rounds of cuts in 1990, it carved nearly $3 million from its 1990-91 budget.

Harvey Oelkers, assistant superintendent for business services, warned the projected $2.3-million deficit for next year could be larger, because the district still has not reached a contract settlement with SEIU. The district could spend an additional $240,000 if that settlement produces salary terms similar to those recently granted the district’s other two unions, he said.