Payzant Asks That District Not Spend Windfall on Restoring Cut Programs

The San Diego Unified School District expects to have at least $13.4 million more than estimated last spring, when trustees lopped $37 million, or 7%, off existing service levels for the 1991-92 fiscal year.

However, Supt. Tom Payzant strongly recommended Tuesday that none of the additional money be used to restore cuts already made in curriculum and other academic-related programs, but rather be targeted for one-time expenditures such as maintenance and for increasing budget reserves.

The new money results from state legislative changes to Gov. Pete Wilson’s original budget plan.

Payzant said Tuesday that he fears additional budget problems will occur next year because the state could well come up short again in its ability to fund existing education programs. More than 80% of the district’s $600-million budget comes from state coffers.

As a result, Payzant asked the board not to put any of the $13.4 million back into current programs because it could face the agony of cutting those same programs even further next year.

Board members Tuesday expressed no opposition to the request and will approve a final budget Sept. 10, after the state clarifies its budget picture later this month.

Payzant recommended that the biggest chunk of the additional funds, $6.2 million, be placed in a budgetary reserve, raising the fund to $12 million to meet the minimum 2% reserve suggested by the state.

The district has operated below that minimum for years, but an adequate reserve is viewed as more critical since the bankruptcy this spring of the Richmond School District near Oakland and the fragile financial status of many other districts around the state.

Payzant said $2.2 million should be used as a prepayment on the district’s new emergency disaster preparedness radio system, thus avoiding interest charges on a just-signed five-year lease-purchase agreement.

An estimated $2.3 million would go toward paring the district’s $49-million list of deferred maintenance projects.

Payzant listed $2.7 million in increases to insurance, auditing and clerical areas to meet mandated or expected additional costs. He did recommend transfer of $41,000 already appropriated to support one special teacher for the successful Latino reading pilot program for elementary students.

Also, an estimated $513,000 in special state funds would be used to support two resource teachers in assisting the large number--up to 800--of new teachers expected in September, who are arriving because of the retirement of veteran instructors under a one-time early-retirement bonus offered in the spring.

In a related budget issue, trustees voted, 4 to 1 with John de Beck opposed, to approve layoffs of 305 instructional aides and reduced hours for 465 others. The cuts were deemed necessary both because of funding shortages and the successful legal fight by the Certified Employees Assn. last spring to win medical and other fringe benefits for permanent aides.

The board expressed concern, however, over whether all schools included union employees on decision-making committees--as hoped for under new site-based decision-making--that decided on how many aides to cut. CEA officials say some school committees unfairly chose to buy new carpeting or copy paper rather than save jobs.