The day before the State of California fined the Berkeley Unified School District for having too many administrators, the school board and Superintendent Laval Wilson discussed a plan to reorganize administrators in order to place “one director in charge of early childhood education, compensatory education and followthrough, [which would] eliminat[e] the present coordinators and supervisors.”

This plan, if carried out, “would save about $72,000 in salaries,” a measure that “more than 20 parents and program supporters spoke [against] for nearly one hour last night [at the school board meeting].”

Nonetheless, “Director Gene Roh predicted that the district’s tight money situation will compel future reorganizations…’no program, if it is a good program, will fail due to the removal of any one individual,'” he said.

Such discussions over reorganization and cutting administrators and staff would be met with similar, if not greater opposition as the school board attempted to balance the budget.