Board Wants School Unions to Take Cuts : Education: It votes to ask the labor groups to accept $50 million in reductions in pay or benefits to balance the $4-billion budget.

The Los Angeles school board voted Wednesday to ask employee unions to accept $50 million in cuts in pay, benefits or other compensation to help the district balance its $4-billion budget for 1991-92.

But the board fell short of closing a $241-million budget gap when it deadlocked 3 to 3 on whether an additional $10-million savings should come through more employee concessions or further cuts to the district’s administrative budget.

“However we package it, it’s a cut to our schools, it’s a cut to our children, it’s a cut to our employees,” said board member Leticia Quezada.

Quezada voted with board member Roberta Weintraub and Jackie Goldberg to increase the employee share of the cuts to $60 million rather than require more administrative savings, which would lead to layoffs as demoted supervisors bump new teachers out of the classroom.

Supt. Bill Anton had proposed a package of cuts that would require $50.8 million in employee concessions--on top of $43 million previously approved--but the shortfall arose when the board vetoed or scaled back several of his cost-cutting recommendations, including a 5% cut in the district’s police budget and the elimination of some special programs, such as the district’s dropout prevention effort.

Instead, some board members asked that Anton trim $17.7 million more from an administrative budget that bore the brunt of last year’s $350 million in cuts.

Anton balked, contending that he cannot squeeze more than the $55.8 million in administrative cuts approved so far from management resources without sacrificing efficiency.

But board member Warren Furutani said that is not enough. “I mean no disrespect . . . but we are all in an area we’ve never been in before,” he said, characterizing the district’s current budget crisis as “worse than Proposition 13.”

Board member Mark Slavkin concurred, arguing that it will be difficult to get employee unions to agree to any concessions unless they are convinced that the district bureaucracy has been cut “to the bone.” Most of the district’s union contracts expire this summer.

“People are angry, and they should be angry,” Slavkin said. “If it’s $50 million or $60 million, it’s going to be a fairly long process to get it through,” he said about the pay concessions. Slavkin, Furutani and Julie Korenstein voted to hold the employee cuts to $50 million.

Board members agreed Wednesday to negotiate with unions on how to achieve the compensation cuts. Some members favor across-the-board salary cuts of about 2.5%, while others support a sliding scale that would exempt lower-paid employees and require more from those making the most money.

The board previously voted to freeze salary step increases and require all employees to take unpaid furloughs of two to five days, saving the district more than $15 million.

Helen Bernstein, head of the district’s largest union, representing more than 30,000 teachers, predicted that it will be hard selling the cuts to her membership.

“There is overwhelming sentiment from this union that they will, in no way, accept a pay cut, including unpaid furlough,” she said. “There is no doubt in my mind that they have in no way cut central administration to the point they need to get my membership to be willing to take a pay cut.

“The vast majority of the cuts that have come down affect the schools, and not the central administration,” she said.

If the union does not agree to cuts in areas covered by their contracts, a long administrative process would ensue that could block implementation of the reductions for months.

As the board inched its way toward its $241-million goal Wednesday, bits and pieces were sliced from several programs deemed too important to do away with, including high school athletics, which will have its $4.7-million budget cut by $940,000, or 20%.

“We’re not looking to see any sports disappearing,” said Goldberg, “but we’re looking to make a cut that everybody feels, not just somebody feels.”

Board members also trimmed several services they had refused to tamper with in earlier rounds of budget deliberations, including an after-school playground program, which will lose $1 million for staffing, and the district’s police department, which will be cut by 2.5%, or $651,000, freezing several vacancies on the police force.

In addition, the board virtually gutted its fund for deferred maintenance, cutting off the district’s eligibility for $5.85 million in matching funds from the state next year.

L.A: School District Budget Cuts

To balance the Los Angeles Unified School District’s $4-billion budget for 1991-92, the school board has approved almost $231 million in cuts--and must make another $10 million next week--affecting nearly every facet of education . Board members agreed that the reductions would have to combine cuts in pay, administrative costs and services on school campuses . Many of the cuts are subject to negotiation with employee unions. Cuts Most Directly Affecting Schools

* Increasing class size by three students in grades 9-12, requiring fewer teachers: $21.3 million

* Limiting the use of substitute teachers: $11 million

* Shifting state incentive funds earmarked for year-round schools to the General Fund: $8.5 million

* Cutting special funding at junior and senior highs for such positions as counselors and librarians: $7.5 million

* Changing the staffing formula to provide fewer teachers to year-round schools: $6.3 million

* Reducing teacher positions at junior and senior highs as enrollment drops during the school year: $5.2 million

* Cutting campus spending accounts by 10%: $4.3 million

* Decreasing the number of assistant principals: $4.1 million

* Reducing school maintenance by 5%: $3.85 million

* Cutting 48 adviser/coordinator positions for special programs: $2.2 million

* Reducing transportation for students who face hazards en route to school: $1.8 million

* Eliminating differentials for teachers who supervise extracurricular activities, such as student government and journalism: $1.1 million

* Reducing salary differential paid to some principals: $1 million

* Reducing the custodial budget by 1.5%: $1 million

* Reducing the staff supervising playgrounds on weekends and after school: $1 million

* Reducing the budget for student athletics by 20%: $940,000

* Reducing non-mandated standardized testing: $250,000

TOTAL this category: $81.3 million

Cuts Affecting Employee Compensation and Benefits

* Asking unions to accept cuts in employee pay or other benefits: $50 million

* Freezing salary step advancements for employees with less than 10 years experience: $18.9 million

* Requiring school-based employees such as teachers and clerks to take two days of unpaid leave: $14.3 million

* Restructuring employee health coverage: $8.5 million

* Requiring employees at children’s centers to take five days of unpaid leave: $800,000

* Eliminating a counseling program for employees: $600,000

* Requiring cafeteria workers to take three days of unpaid leave: $30,000

TOTAL this category: $93.1 million

Cuts to District Administration

* Reducing programs administered through central offices: $17.4 million

* Eliminating 282 positions through decentralization: $14.3 million

* Shifting funds from the Business and Financial Services Department to the General Fund: $14 million

* Reducing the deferred maintenance fund: $5.85 million

* Reducing central office supplies and equipment by 10%: $1.9 million

* Reducing by half the fund for moving bungalows onto crowded campuses: $911,000 million

* Reducing the police budget by not filling vacant positions: $651,000

* Eliminating the fund used to finance building alterations at crowded schools: $500,000

* Reducing the budgets of the six advisory commissions: $152,000

* Reducing by 23% the Independent Analysis Unit, which evaluates district programs: $144,000

* Eliminating the salary differential paid to some administrators in outlying offices: $45,527

TOTAL this category: $55.84 million

TOTAL ALL CATEGORIES: $230.24 million