Schools lay off 20 temp employees

The district is now facing more  cuts in state funding than had been expected for the remainder of this school year and a total of about $1.4 million in cuts for the 2009-2010 year. The state has also cut the County Office of Education, which runs the alternative eduction programs, charter schools and the juvenile hall, by about  $759,000 for the next year.

The first round of layoff notices  include several teachers, a counselor, psychologist and speech therapist in the school district.

However, temporary employees know when they’re hired that they could be handed a pink slip at any time. Those and any others given a notice could be rehired by the district.

The board is considering other cuts that not only include saving on payroll costs, but reducing staff development days, cutting down on busing and moving more sixth-grade classes from elementary schools to the middle school.

But laying off employees who performs those tasks is a more delicate subject.

Connie Reidel, president of the California School Employees Association, asked board members to take a look at schools and see how needed employees are.

“There are things they do that you don’t see,” she said about the tasks employees do outside their job description. “Look at the jobs and the hard work they’re doing.”

Board member Bob Berkowitz questioned using $600,000 the district has in reserve to save jobs. The board reserved the money last school year to help the district through previous budget cuts.

“If we want to keep cuts far from the classroom,” he said, “how many jobs can $600,000 save us?”

Deputy Superintendent Rodney Jahn said that money could pay for about eight to nine teachers or be used to keep a steady cash-flow as the state continues to defer making its payments month to month.

However, that money, said Janet Parker, a kindergarten teacher at Bess Maxwell Elementary, could help keep teachers and class sizes low.

The state provides extra funding to the school district to keep K-3 class sizes at 20 students to one teacher — otherwise, there’s a penalty. The district is considering upping K-3 classes to 25 students to one teacher. While that would result in a monetary loss from the state, it would save more money in payroll to lay off 11 teachers.

“$600,000 to teachers,” Parker said,“to keep class size down.”

In addition to slicing payroll, art and music programs are often the first to get cut because they’re not core subjects. That shouldn’t be, said Mary Michelle Cupp, who teaches music and vocals to K-8 students at several elementary schools.

“You have a choice to make music a priority,” she said to board members.

Cupp said music has to be taught little-by-little in each grade so that students can someday progress to band or choir without having to re-learn the basics. With fewer music teachers to go around, kids could have to go whole grades without learning a anything about music structure or how to play an instrument.

“You don’t use it, you lose it,” Cupp said. “I don’t want them to lose it.”