Schools

South Bay Union School District May Lay Off More Than 100 Teachers

Initial notices will be delivered to employees by March 15. Final notices will be issued in May.

The South Bay Union School District (SBUSD) board of trustees voted unanimously at their March 3 meeting to send layoff notices to more than 100 employees next week as part of efforts to close a $8.3 million gap in next year's budget. In a best-case scenario, 70 positions will be eliminated, a district official said.

Due to the potential decrease in state and federal funds, a decline in attendance, rise in utility rates and other factors, the district projects a larger budget gap for the 2012-13 budget year.

The following positions may be eliminated.

  • 31 full-time teachers and 16 precautionary notices to full-time teachers.
  • Three preschool teachers.
  • 52 part-time temporary teachers.
  • Two assistant principals.
  • Director of Student Achievement Services.
  • A school nurse.
  • A social worker.
  • A music teacher.

About $6 million will come out of the district's general fund reserve to make up for the shortfall, said Scott Buxbaum, assistant superintendent in charge of finance.

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If lawmakers decide to put the decision in voter's hands later this week to approve tax extensions in a June special election, $730,000 in cuts can be avoided for next year's budget "and those positions can be recalled and not laid off," he said.

Beth Gillen, who works as a health clerk in about a dozen SBUSD schools, asked the district to reconsider getting rid of the school nurse. The laid-off nurse may not have trouble finding a new job at another school, but it took the SBUSD three years to hire her the first time.

"This can't wait until June," Gillen said. "She has responsibilities to hold for her family and there are a number of other vacancies at other schools."

Right now there is one nurse for every 1,600 students, she said. Firing another nurse would push that number up to 2,000.

"Reducing our nurses hurts all of our students and their families and the staff," she said.

Superintendent Carol Parish and the board of trustees have spent the past few weeks visiting state Assembly and Senate members representing San Diego County districts to deliver a single message: Let voters decide whether or not to extend taxes.

In their visits, Parish said she found politicians, for the most part, "lining up along party lines," with Democrats for a tax extension and Republicans against, though Republicans showed an interest in what they had to say about the impact of more cuts, she said.

A ratio of 30 students to each teacher is "overpowering" said board member Chris Brown.

"It will hurt student's learning," she said.

Before the board decided to unanimously approve the layoffs, Parish had a few words of optimism.

"I know that there is a rainbow at the end of this journey," she said. "I know it's a few years out, but we just have to keep close to us in our hearts the people that we're letting go for a while.

"Trust in their resiliency. Trust our ability to help them through these times. That someday soon, South Bay will be thriving again."

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