170 SCHOOL WORKERS MAILED LAYOFF NOTICES.

Byline: Jennifer Radcliffe Staff Writer

The financially strapped Los Angeles Unified School District mailed layoff notices Friday to about 170 nurses, social workers and other employees, although officials hope to find funding elsewhere to avert the job losses.

The notices were sent to about 60 campus nurses, 40 psychiatric social workers and 70 attendance counselors whose positions are funded by grants and other outside sources. Despite the district's financial crisis, some administrators hope the money will be found elsewhere to allow the layoffs to be averted.

``This is a worst-case scenario,'' said Maria Ott, senior deputy superintendent of educational services. ``It's so unlikely that I feel comfortable saying I'd be very surprised if any of the nurses who receive a notice don't have a job next year.''

The layoffs are in addition to the 480 positions the school board eliminated Thursday, when it also directed Superintendent Roy Romer to cut an additional $61 million to balance the district's $5.7 billion budget.

Many of those positions are in special-needs, instructional services and after-school programs, so the cuts will directly impact students.

``We are sort of reeling,'' said Donnalyn Anton, associate superintendent of special education, which lost nearly 60 positions. ``We're kind of down to the bare bones.''

John Liechty, associate superintendent of the Beyond the Bell Branch, said he likely will have to reduce the operating hours for the after-school program, which serves about 100,000 children daily, after losing seven positions and about $2.5 million.

``It's very tough,'' he said. ``You can't keep doing everything you're doing and growing if you don't have the people.''

Romer said he's having to make tough choices as he tries to close a $536 million funding gap, but is working to preserve front-line teaching jobs.

``We understand this is not easy and we have another $61 million-plus to go,'' he said. ``We are doing everything we can to protect the classroom.''

While workers appreciate that certificated teachers are not being laid off, they said more administrative jobs should have been eliminated.

``We're calling for no layoffs until they make some serious cuts to the bureaucracy,'' said Steve Blazak, spokesman for United Teachers Los Angeles. ``There's just too much bloat there.''

With the critical health risks facing today's children, such as obesity and diabetes, school board member David Tokofsky objected to laying off any health-care worker.

``Targeting nurses in an era when the board is passing motions about healthy students seems to be bipolar at best,'' Tokofsky said. ``I think taking a 'tough love' budget approach is not thoughtful enough.''

But Romer said he has to focus on educating children. ``You can't expect a school system to solve all the health problems of Los Angeles,'' he said. ``If we were to meet the need, we'd double our budget.''

Connie Moreno, labor relations representative for the California School Employees Association, said her workers account for most of the 480 positions cut by the board this week. These include office, technical and business service employees.

While her members won't receive layoff notices, she expects that they'll be told whether their job has been eliminated Monday.

``I'm so depressed,'' she said. ``It's going to be interesting for everyone who keeps calling for cuts in central office to live with the ramifications of those cuts.''

Jennifer Radcliffe, [phone]

jennifer.radcliffe(at)dailynews.com