HUNTINGTON BEACH : Trustees to Decide on $450,000 in Cuts

Trustees of the Huntington Beach City School District will decide tonight whether to make more than $450,000 in budget cuts for the coming year.

In approving its tentative 1991-92 budget last month, the board of trustees agreed to reduce spending by up to half of the district’s projected deficit of $1.1 million.

The remainder of the shortfall will be bridged by funds from the district’s special reserve account. That money will be replaced next year, if necessary, with a similar level of cuts, officials said.

The proposed cuts, which total $451,304, do not call for layoffs or reductions in existing educational programs, said John Conniff, the district’s deputy superintendent for educational services.

As proposed, most of the cuts will come by slashing $150,000 in maintenance capital costs, eliminating some seminars and workshops for district employees, buying fewer supplies in all departments and using fewer replacements for clerical workers who are absent.

The district also would cancel its $2,200 budget for new library books this year, and would not fill two vacant positions--a $70,000-a-year administrative post and a part-time library clerk.

The district would also hire fewer substitute teachers by using former district teachers who retire early, saving an estimated $8,500. Ex-teachers may enhance their retirement benefits by working at various jobs for the district, such as clerical positions, assisting with testing programs and development of curricula, but they rarely have been used as substitutes, Conniff said.

District administrators drew up the spending-reduction proposals based on trustees’ comments on a larger list of considered cuts.