When the School Board convenes tonight at 7, for the third consecutive Tuesday, over the thorny subject of budget-cutting, this time at Lin Howe School, member Scott Zeidman envisions the following scenario:
A cluster of speakers will look the team of School District administrators in the eye. They will urge them, in cement-strength language, to share the budget-cutting pain and volunteer to take a salary reduction, amount unspecified.
The subject has been broached, pointedly, the last two Tuesdays, without success, but tonight is different.
This is the last crack that parents, teachers and other opinion-givers will have at administrators before the state-imposed March 15 budget submission deadline.
In just the past 24 hours, Mr. Zeidman said this morning, he has received more than 100 emails. Administration salary reductions are on their minds.
If the first brave administrator lifts his or her arm — that is, his own or her own, not someone else’s — could that ignite an avalanche of generosity by teachers and others?
If so, that would heavily uncomplicate the School Board’s task of making upwards of $4 million in budget cuts.
But this is no time to be bloodthirsty, says one of the most knowledgeable voices in the community.
Careful What You Wish for
As Alan Elmont of the influential Community Budget Advisory Committee has noted several times recently, if the salaries of all 39 administrators were instantly erased, that would only cover half of the required reduction. Besides, there would not be anyone left to run the District’s schools.
But, said Mr, Elmont, if the 39 administrators agree to take a 10 pay cut, this act alone would save $200,000 and preserve the jobs of three or four lower-rung employees.
That, he says, would be a valiant, pragmatic act.
At times the last two Tuesdays, the meeting-room has resembled a shooting gallery, with the Irving Place administration on the receiving end.
Proportion is an important consideration, Mr. Elmont said.
Contrary to the assertions of some critics, Culver City’s District is not top-heavy with administrators. Based on surveys, Culver City employs an average number of administrators whose salaries also are in the middle range.
Sharing tonight’s banner headlines will be the matter of class sizes:
Will the School Board agree to raise the K-through-3 maximum from 20 to 22 students, both as a revenue generator and as a more desirable option than inflating classes in the Middle School and Culver City High School?
