"Arts are core to our instructional program, and I cannot allow the magnitude of the original cuts to be implemented," said /*LAUSD*/ Superintendent Ramon Cortines.
The budget adopted Tuesday includes $145 million in savings through district employees taking furlough days.
About 680 teachers, counselors and other certificated employees and more than 2,000 classified positions still face layoffs beginning July 1. More than 1,000 employees are being cut from a year-round to a 10-month schedule because the number of year-round schools is being reduced.
School board member Richard Vladovic is calling for a parcel tax measure to be put on the November ballot to raise money the district needs. A similar proposition received a majority vote in June, but it didn't get the two-thirds vote it needs for passage.
LAUSD would have been able to save all the arts programming along with 200 custodians and many library aides, if Measure E, the limited parcel tax, had passed with 66 percent of the vote.
