COMPTON : College Gets Exception on Teachers’ Salaries

A state governing board has granted Compton College an exemption from a law that requires community colleges to spend at least half of their annual budgets on teachers’ salaries.

The college spent 47% of its $10.8-million budget on teachers in the 1993-94 fiscal year, falling short of the state-mandated minimum by about $335,000, officials said.

The 12-member California Community Colleges Board of Governors, which oversees the state’s 106 community colleges, recently decided to grant the exemption after it was determined that the college had more than $500,000 in unanticipated costs, mainly on legal fees, and exceeded its budget for maintenance and equipment purchases.

The extra legal expenses that year stemmed from an investigation in which two employees were accused of misspending federal grant money that had been earmarked for low-income students. As a result of the investigation, one employee was fired and another was asked to resign.

The intent of the statute, commonly known as the “50% Law,” is to limit class size and reduce the growth of administrative and other non-instructional costs.

Compton was the only community college in the state that did not meet the 50% requirement in 1993-94, said Melanie Bedwell, spokeswoman for the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

The college is planning to comply with the law this year, said Lester Vierra, dean of academic affairs.