Latest Ideas for School Cuts Touch Off Uproar : Education: Ten nurses and 10 safety officers are put on the list of economies being considered in Compton. Trustees are looking at a shortfall of up to $9 million.

COMPTON — Ten nurses and 10 school safety officers have been added to the list of possible cuts being considered by school trustees to eliminate a budget shortfall of $7 million to $9 million, which could cost 113 people their jobs next year.

The cuts, suggested during a Wednesday night budget workshop, brought howls from safety-minded school board members and from the teachers union, which represents the nurses.

“We do not have enough nurses as it is,” said Muriel Brooks, president of the Compton Education Assn. “No elementary school has a full-time nurse every day. . . . And now you’re going to reduce them to 10.”

The cut, if approved by the trustees of the Compton Unified School District, would reduce the 20-member nursing staff by half, a saving of $367,404.

Margie Garrett, a teacher at Marian Anderson Elementary School and president-elect of the union, recalled an incident in which a girl suffered a head injury and no nurse or nurse’s aide was on duty. Two teachers, the principal and a custodian cared for the child until a nurse arrived from another school.

“It was a very frightening experience not to have somebody there who knew what to do and what not to do, like whether to move her,” Garrett said.

Other proposals included reducing the number of safety officers from 35 to 25. The cut would save $215,149, but some board members expressed dismay over what it would mean in a community plagued by gang violence that sometimes spills over onto school campuses.

A student was shot and seriously wounded at Compton High School earlier this year in an incident that police said was related to gangs.

The most recent proposal by the district’s financial staff brings to 113 the number of possible layoffs. Two weeks ago, in its first budget session, the staff suggested cutting seven nurse’s aides and one lieutenant and two sergeants in the school safety department.

Also on the list were clerks, janitors, five music teachers, eight middle-school teachers, and six bilingual staff teachers and supervisors.

The district has just 46 fully credentialed bilingual teachers. However, according to data supplied by the district, it has 8,000 children who do not speak English well enough to learn in that language. Partly credentialed teachers or Spanish-speaking classroom aides do most of the teaching of those children.

Also included among the first cuts was the two-member community relations department, whose primary responsibility is public information and publicity. However, board President Mary Henry and Trustee Cloria Patillo repeated their plea Wednesday night for keeping the department, saying it was needed to generate favorable publicity for the district.

In the last two weeks, the financial staff has presented trustees with $6.6 million in possible cuts. However, according to the district’s controller, G. Stafford Offerman, total reductions must reach $7 million to $9 million to balance spending with projected general-fund revenues of $118.3 million.

The general fund, a combination of tax revenue and state educational money, provides salaries for almost all teachers and for support staff such as clerks and janitors. The fund also provides money for school materials, including textbooks, cleaning supplies and gasoline for cars used by safety officers.

The district receives other money from state and federal sources, which could bring total revenue next year to about $145 million, but that money is designated for specific items such as capital improvements.

The amount of the shortfall in the general fund--$7 million or $9 million--depends on the size of the cost-of-living increase the state includes in its education aid. If the increase is 3%, Offerman said, the shortfall in the general fund will be about $9 million. If the state gives a 4.95% increase, as some sources suggest it will, Offerman said, the shortfall would be about $7 million.

The gloomy budget outlook is bad news for district employees, none of whom got raises this year. Next year’s budget projects, however, include a retroactive 6% pay raise for the staff for this year. The projections also include a 6% increase for next year.