SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Schools May Lay Off 34, Cut Programs

Capistrano Unified School District may be forced to lay off 34 custodians and groundskeepers and cut or eliminate 40 programs if class sizes are not increased and the state’s budget problems continue, district officials have announced.

Administrators last month proposed raising by one or two students the district’s average class size, which would bring it to the Orange County average, as a way of decreasing the number of programs that would need to be pared or eliminated. A class-size increase would allow the district to absorb the 1,000 additional students it expects to enroll this fall without hiring additional teachers.

Without the class size increase, the district will have to resort to layoffs and may eliminate proficiency testing and junior high school intramural sports, district officials said.

Carole F. Bailey, the district’s director of fiscal services, said that because the district has the highest salaries, smallest class sizes and lowest per-student revenue in the county, it has few options other than increasing class size to close its budget gap.

But district trustees, who say the district should retain its lower-than-average class sizes, have asked Bailey to prepare a deficit-reduction plan without a class-size increase. The board will make its decision on budget cuts next month.

Besides laying off the custodians and groundskeepers, budget cuts proposed by the district include laying off half of the district’s elementary and junior high school lunchtime supervisors and slashing purchases of instructional equipment by 50% and athletic equipment by 10%.

The district’s two employee unions have announced their own proposals for eliminating the $4.2-million budget deficit that administrators have forecast for the district in the next school year.

The teachers union wants to use a $4.1-million state grant originally slated for classroom computers to offset the deficit. The union for the custodians, groundskeepers, food workers and secretaries proposes increasing the number of students in the average class by two while eliminating programs such as field trips, sixth-grade camp and employee recognition awards, saving $3.1 million.