Teacher Layoffs

The Beverly Hills Unified School District has approved plans to lay off teachers and cut educational services to offset a projected $850,000 budget deficit for the 1993-94 school year. The school board last week adopted an "austerity budget" that reduces teaching staff by the equivalent of 9.6 full-time positions for the academic year that starts in September, saving the district about $521,000.

I bumped into my daughter's former teacher the other day, and she told me that after surviving several layoff threats, this time will probably be different. She's relatively low in seniority and expects to lose her job. I felt helpless, and angry, too, knowing how great a teacher she is. How many others will we lose? It is the season of horror stories in public education, as budget battles play out in Sacramento. How do you measure the losses for students when their teachers get dumped, class sizes grow and continuity is sacrificed on one campus after another?

School district officials across the state are wrestling with the fallout over a controversial new law that bars teacher layoffs for a year even amid deep financial uncertainty. The law, passed at the last minute with no public debate as part of the budget package in late June, requires districts to maintain this year's level of teachers and programs in the upcoming 2011-12 school year. This means that even if funding drops, school boards and superintendents will be prevented from making mid-year cuts to campus programs.

The president of the Orange school district teachers' union Monday warned the school board not to lay off teachers to help balance a $1.5-million deficit in the district. Wilma Wittman, president of the Orange Unified Education Assn., in a statement prepared for a special board meeting Monday night, told the school board members that their proposal to lay off up to 34 teachers at the end of this year would be harmful to the students.

Teachers in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District have agreed to extend the deadline for receiving layoff notices by one month, district and teachers' association officials said. The extension was approved last week by the Assn. of Placentia Linda Educators to give the district more time to determine how much of the $84 million it had in the bankrupt county's investment pool will be recovered.

Compton school officials have sent layoff notices to about 425 teachers in the financially troubled district, triggering an angry response from teachers. The notices were handed out last month to teachers whose work assignments were temporary or who were on probation, said Christine Sanchez, a district spokeswoman. Sanchez emphasized, however, that only a small percentage of those who received notices are likely to lose their jobs.

The Irvine school board, forced to slice $5 million from the next school year's budget, have voted to send layoff notices to 182 teachers. Trustees acted this week because initial layoff notices by law must be sent to teachers by March 15. Should Irvine voters approve a flat $95-per-parcel tax April 11, officials hope the $3 million generated would substantially reduce the number of teachers who would get final layoff notices by a May 15 deadline.