CALABASAS : Member Urges Board to Relinquish Pay

Las Virgenes school board members should be stripped of their stipends and benefits to help offset a budget crunch at the prestigious district, a board member said this week.

Harry Knaster, who has declined the package since he was elected in 1991, proposed at the Board of Education’s regular meeting Tuesday night that the five members of the panel decline monthly stipends of $240 each and up to $7,600 each in yearly benefits.

“It’s a combined symbolic gesture as well as a realistic money source,” Knaster said in a telephone interview before the meeting. “It won’t solve all the financial problems, but it sets the tone for the district. You have to have the attitude that every penny does count.”

Although Las Virgenes board members are eligible for up to $480 in monthly stipends by state law, they have capped their pay at $240, said Assistant Supt. Donald Zimring. The other four board members accept the stipends and some benefits, he said.

“I don’t agree with any proposal that says one group of people should be asked to give up everything, to set some kind of example,” said board member Judy Jordan, who is running for reelection. “Who else is going to be asked to give up everything?”

“I also think it would restrict the board only to people who could afford to work for free,” she said.

Board member Barbara Bowman-Fagelson, another incumbent in the November race, said the debate over the issue would be “more appropriate for the budget process during the spring.”

Bowman-Fagelson also said she would not be surprised if the issue is taken up by other school board candidates during the campaign.

Knaster said he first proposed cutting board members’ stipends and benefits more than a year ago and is pushing it now because “things have only gotten worse since then.”