10 SCHOOL EMPLOYEES' JOBS SPARED.

Byline: Marci Wormser Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Ten Palmdale School District custodians and other employees got a reprieve when trustees voted in favor of eliminating only four of 14 nonteaching jobs proposed for the chopping block.

The board conducted a special meeting Monday night to vote on laying off 14 full-time classified, or nonteaching employees, to pare $1 million from the district's budget.

But, instead, the board voted unanimously to lay off two groundskeepers, a warehouse worker and an administrative secretary, saving $221,000. The board voted against laying off seven custodians, two other groundskeepers and a technology technician.

``We're all trying to save jobs,'' board President Tom Lackey said Tuesday. ``We don't want to be sending people to the unemployment line because of this ugly budget crisis we've been handed.''

The board also reaffirmed the layoffs of three assistant principals, at a savings of $296,000, confirming a decision made in March.

To date, 59 classified employees, 115 teachers and 10 assistant principals have been given pink slips.

School officials said they expect no more cuts. District officials have cut approximately $12 million to make up for state funding cuts to schools, Lackey said.

``As it looks like now, this will be it,'' Lackey said of further cuts for the 2003-04 school year.

The trustees decided against laying off custodians because 19 custodial positions were eliminated two years ago, Deputy Superintendent Bob Rice said.

``We felt like we were hitting one job class too hard,'' Rice said.

To make up for the 10 saved jobs, the board members reduced by 10 percent the funds provided to schools to buy supplies and decided to curtail summer school and district office hours to four days a week during July and most of August.

Teachers and administrators who work during summer breaks will work four days a week for 10 hours a day. The schedule change will save the district $54,000 in air-conditioning costs, Rice said.

``There was nothing else to cut,'' Lackey said. ``We tapped everything we possibly could. We've been cutting for two years. There's nothing left.''

In a first round of votes Monday, the board members voted unanimously to eliminate the 14 positions, said district spokesman Isaac Barcelona. The board then went into closed session before returning and amending the vote to eliminate only four of the 14 jobs, Barcelona said.

The trustees met in closed session to discuss ways to cut the budget by laying off as few people as possible, Lackey said.

``We're already going to be in a compromised situation and we're trying to limit that as much as possible,'' he said. ``Every job in this district affects kids in some way. I think we've been responsible in not laying off too many people.''

At the board meeting last week, the trustees spared the jobs of 11 full- time library clerks and 11 full-time media technicians, which would have saved $1.2 million, Barcelona said. Barcelona's job was one of those eliminated.

The latest and final round of cuts was made in exchange for the 22 saved jobs.

In mid-March, the district notified 115 teachers and 10 assistant principals that they could be laid off at the end of the school year. That vote came on the heels of a Feb. 25 board vote to drop the year-round school schedule and to increase class sizes in lower grades, cutting an estimated $6.1 million from the budget.

The February vote will cause class sizes to increase to as many as 32 pupils in kindergarten through third grade, up from the current maximum of 20 pupils. The traditional calendar will add 17 more days of instruction - 180 days compared with the current 163. The changes will take effect when the new school year commences in September.