Downstroke

What price president? The California State University system is knocking out the new hires, having chosen new presidents for CSU Sacramento and Cal Poly Pomona. Finally, they’re getting around to starting the search for Manuel Esteban’s replacement at Chico State.

So, when they find the new prez, what will he or she be paid? The new Sac leader is getting $221,004 with a housing allowance of $36,804, and the Pomona prez is getting $205,008 and has to live in a campus house.

When Esteban came here, he refused to live in the rundown president’s mansion, which has since been remodeled into a reception center. He’s been earning $208,248 plus a $27,000-a-year housing allowance.

To no one’s surprise, trustees on May 13 chose Provost Scott McNall (pictured) as interim president. He’ll get $208,000 a year for the gig, which starts July 1.

This is not fun: So, the final notices are out from the school district. The equivalent of 44 people, most of them teachers, are slated to be laid off.

The Chico Unified School District Board of Trustees took the 4-1 vote May 7, saving elementary music and a nurse for the teen-parent program but eliminating some psychologists, librarians, counselors and other positions. (Trustee Scott Huber wanted to keep ninth-grade class-size reduction and voted against the resolution.)

Now, rather than take the not-so-subtle hint that teachers forgo pay increases, the union is suggesting that, if the CUSD will cough up incentives, a bunch of people will retire and save the district money.

Of the 214 who got initial notices, some were entitled to hearings. Before an administrative law judge, employees were pitted against one another as some argued they had more seniority than a colleague who was not being laid off. A summary of the proceedings, which compares employees by name, makes the whole thing look really stark and awkward.

Will state sink the ARC? If Gov. Gray Davis signs off on a proposal now on his desk, funding to state disability services, including the Association of Retarded Citizens (ARC of Butte County), will take a big hit.

County and city officials met May 12 to discuss the proposed changes. The main target of the budget hatchet would be the Lanterman Act, which “basically defines the whole system of care,” said ARC’s executive director, Mike McGinnis.

Changes to the act would, among other things, raise the standards of what is considered a developmental disability, suspend startup funding for new programs except under “extraordinary circumstances” and create a required co-payment on the part of families receiving care from the state, according to a bulletin.

“[If the proposal passes] there will be many families who will no longer be able to afford these services that are now free,” McGinnis said.