Fiscal Overseer Will Monitor Inglewood School District : Finances: County education officials are not impressed by board’s efforts to deal with a projected $2-million deficit.

After failing for three years to stabilize its shaky finances, the Inglewood Unified School District has been assigned a fiscal overseer by county education officials, joining only three districts countywide that are subject to such intervention.

The county intervention is not as drastic as the state takeover of the Compton schools, which are now under the full control of a state-appointed overseer. But Inglewood’s fiscal adviser, who is to be named within 10 days by County Supt. of Schools Stuart E. Gothold, will have the power to reverse spending decisions already made by the board and to veto future decisions, county officials said.

Of the county’s 81 school districts, county fiscal advisers have been assigned to two South Bay districts--Inglewood and Centinela Valley Union--and to the Antelope Valley Union High School District.

Calvin W. Hall, assistant county superintendent for business services, broke the news of the intervention to Inglewood school trustees in a meeting late Wednesday that was crammed with parents and district employees. Hall, heading a visiting team of half a dozen county school officials, said the county hoped to work cooperatively with the district to wipe out its projected deficit of more than $2 million and to develop a long-range fiscal strategy for the school system.

“We’re here tonight, hopefully, to play a positive role with the board and the district in balancing the budget,” Hall said, taking pains to make the meeting non-confrontational. He added, though, that the county has been watching the district “over a period of time” and that the district has not made sufficient progress in solving on-going budget problems.

Hall handed the board a letter from Gothold saying an adviser was being assigned because the district “will not be able to meet its current or subsequent year’s financial obligations” and “because of the district’s demonstrated failure to follow through with prudent fiscal policies.”

The letter also contained a chronology of fiscal problems in Inglewood going back to the 1989-90 school year, in which the county disapproved the district’s budget on grounds that it overestimated revenues and underestimated expenditures.

State law, Hall told school board members Wednesday, mandates that the county intervene when it appears that a district is on the brink of fiscal insolvency. Though the room was packed, the audience listened in utter silence and the board sat stone-faced.

Earlier this month, the county superintendent disapproved the Inglewood school district’s 1993-94 budget, asserting that it had been balanced on the assumption that district employees would take a 2% pay cut, a reduction that has not yet been negotiated.

Within days, the Inglewood school board announced it would close a school and lay off about 50 teachers and other workers. The moves would have cut more than $2 million from the budget, but apparently they did not satisfy the county superintendent of schools.

The board also announced it would hire its own fiscal consultant. However, word that the consultant, a former fiscal official for the district, might be returning drew criticism from employee groups and, apparently, did nothing to mollify county officials.

In Wednesday’s meeting, Hall patiently turned aside protests from board members that the district’s fiscal problems could be laid at the feet of state officials who have not adequately funded schools. State money problems, Hall said, are only going to grow worse and school districts must adapt.

Employee unions for teachers and other workers have long been saying that the board and its administrators are not making wise fiscal decisions. They have also complained that administrators are too numerous and overpaid.

Christopher Graeber, director of Cal Pro, which represents non-teaching school workers in Inglewood, said Thursday that the county’s decision should lend credence to such criticism.

George McKenna, the Inglewood school district’s superintendent, could not be reached for comment Thursday.