MOORPARK : Board Tables Plan to Have Officials Teach

After an hour’s discussion, the Moorpark school board Tuesday tabled a regulation that would have directed administrators who hold teaching certificates to act as substitute teachers 10 days a year.

Board member Tom Baldwin said he got the idea of putting about 20 administrators back in the classroom at a conference several years ago at which a top Soviet education official said upper-level administrators were required to spend a number of days in the classroom.

Although the Moorpark Unified School District is not facing a layoff of teachers with the current budget crunch, no new teachers will be hired in the growing district. Larger classes will be the result of the hiring freeze, with about two more children to a classroom.

“The teachers will be teaching more students, our business administrator is going without a secretary, and the janitors will have to clean more classrooms,” Baldwin said. “Everyone will have to work harder. One way to get the job done is to have the administrators help out in the classroom.”

Baldwin estimates that out of a budget of $185,000 for substitute teachers for the 1991-92 school year, about $20,000 would be saved by having administrators teach 10 days a year.