MISSION VIEJO : 60 Teachers May Get Reprieve on Layoffs

Sixty Saddleback Valley Unified School District teachers who have received layoff notices will not lose their jobs if the state budget being considered by the Legislature is adopted.

In the first move of its kind in the county, the district’s Board of Education unanimously voted Tuesday to rescind almost $2 million of the more than $4 million in program cuts it recently enacted, withdraw 60 of the 82 layoff notices it sent to teachers, rehire some custodians part time, and to restore in part 14 programs previously eliminated.

Implementation of the board’s action is dependent on the passage of the budget and its approval by Gov. Pete Wilson.

Among the restored programs and jobs would be the high school academic decathlon, high school librarians, counselors, several sports and elementary school remedial reading, music and science.

More than 20 programs would remain cut, however, although most, such as microfilming district records, do not directly affect students.

The cuts had been approved by the board in recent months after Wilson threatened to slash the state education budget by $2 billion, which would have decreased the 25,000-student district’s $100-million revenue by more than $4 million.

But last week Wilson, who is still struggling with the state’s $14-billion budget deficit, withdrew the cut after it became apparent that he did not have enough legislative support.

R. Kent Hann, the board’s president, said he is happy about being able to restore some programs, at least in part, although that joy is tempered.

“Please keep in mind that (while) $2 million is a wonderful sum, we are still cutting almost $2.5 million from the hide of the district,” he said.

He also warned that the cuts might have to be made again next year.

The restoration, he said, “is strictly for one year, and there is no guarantee of funding beyond that.”

Bonnie Chadd, president of the Saddleback Valley Educators Assn., the district’s teachers union, said teachers are relieved by the restoration.

“The good news is that not as many teachers will be without jobs and that those that remain will be able to work in those programs they like best,” she said.

The district laid off 55 non-teaching employees in March, including seven full-time and one part-time custodian. Under the restoration, those custodians would be rehired part time.

If the state budget passes, the restorations guarantee that some programs--such as the academic decathlon and up to seven sports, which were to have been denied district funding--will exist next fall.

Each of the four high school decathlon teams will receive $4,500 from the district, instead of the $10,000 they received last year.

Mission Viejo’s City Council recently gave tentative approval to granting the teams $5,000 each if necessary; Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.) also promised to help the teams raise whatever is needed to survive.

“I know the kids will be thrilled,” said Janet Hooper, the coach of Trabuco Hills High School’s team. “I’ve had a lot of students who want to be on the team next year who kept asking, ‘What are we going to do?’ ”

One of the district’s high schools, Laguna Hills, has won the state decathlon and finished second in the national competition in each of the last two years.

Despite putting $110,000 back in the $1.3-million high school athletic budget, which guarantees the survival of sports such as cross country and tennis, each school will still lose funding for seven assistant coaches in various sports.