State Windfall Used to Patch School Cuts : Budget: Pay cut is revoked, music program partially restored and class sizes decreased slightly. San Diego teachers union dispute may be averted because $15.1 million is restored to budget.

San Diego city school trustees used a $15.1-million windfall from state coffers Thursday to restore half the cuts they had made earlier this summer.

The money went to revoke a pay cut, decrease class size and partially restore a popular elementary school music program along with more than half a dozen nursing positions that had been eliminated in a tortuous budget process earlier this summer.

Students, parents and teachers pleaded with trustees Tuesday to restore their favorite programs and increase pay, and the board Thursday granted many of their wishes.

Staving off the 2.6% salary rollback also paved the way for a tentative three-year contract agreement with the San Diego Teachers Assn.--in negotiation since January--and resolved three unfair-labor practice complaints tied to the cuts, Supt. Tom Payzant said.

But Payzant and trustees warned that restored programs will have to be streamlined if they are to survive the coming lean years.

“I don’t think we should work to bring back a program and not think about what to do to keep it alive,” Trustee Shirley Weber said.

The board slashed $30 million from its 1992-93 budget early this summer in anticipation of state cuts. In addition to the salary rollback, increase in class size and cuts to nursing and elementary school music, that budget gutted a host of programs, from counseling and sports to supplemental writing and sex education.

But trustees learned last Friday that the news from Sacramento wasn’t quite that bad: $13.7 million in state revenue was restored to San Diego schools by Gov. Pete Wilson as part of a statewide gesture to grades kindergarten through 12.

On Monday night the budget picture brightened more. School officials discovered an additional $1.4 million in state revenue was coming their way.

The money will be repaid to the state in coming years out of funds that would otherwise come to San Diego schools, ensuring a no-growth school budget here for a while, district controller Henry Hurley said.

News of the unexpected funds drew a large crowd of teachers, parents and students to the board’s Tuesday meeting to plead for better pay and reinstatement of programs. The reaction was in part a response to recommendations by Payzant that the $13.7 million go to revoke salary cuts and class size increases.

While dozens of teachers supported Payzant’s plan, dozens of others flocked to the meeting to stump for 10 nursing jobs and elementary school music instruction, slated for complete elimination in this year’s budget.

The $1.4-million surprise enabled trustees to please both sides.

Payzant’s recommendations were passed unanimously by the five-member board.

“It probably would have been less smooth if we hadn’t had that extra $1.4 million,” board President Ann Armstrong said.

The quick decision left trustees two hours to allocate the $1.4 million.

In a 3-2 vote, half a million dollars went to reduce a previously approved class size increase for grades four through 12. Almost seven nursing positions out of 10 that had been eliminated were restored, and the popular elementary school music program was partially restored.

Money that could have gone to restore all nursing positions went instead to reduce class size. The extra money eases a class size increase from 0.25 kids to 0.14, fractions hard to match to real children.

“I don’t think that minuscule number makes any difference,” said Trustee John De Beck, who voted against Weber’s motion for that reason.

Reinstating the music program also left trustees with plenty of questions. Teachers from that program have already been reassigned to secondary schools and other district positions. Getting them back now may be complicated. And without restructuring the program, it is likely to end up on the chopping block next summer.

“Yes, this is a stop-gap year. But by next year we will have something viable,” Armstrong said of what she hopes will be a successfully restructured program capable of serving the district’s children with less money.

For those on the front lines, the news was nothing but good.

“There is a God in heaven,” said Tony Higgins, who has taught music in San Diego schools since 1956. “I’m elated. It’s imperative that we get started on this program. It’s the 17th already and we’ve got to get it going.

“This gloom and doom of ‘Oh, we’ll never be able to afford it next year,’ to hell with that,” he said. “I’m going to be teaching with the idea of doing everything I can for those kids.”

Trustees were less optimistic.

“I live from budget to budget, and I’m sure the district will, too,” De Beck said. “I’m not going to make a commitment in front of an audience that we’re not going to cut nursing or music next year.”