Dana Gray music teacher John Gilmore will be among the local teachers to get layoff notices being sent out at the end of this week. Gilmore knows the layoffs may not actually come to pass and feels the school district has done a great job of protecting education locally. He would have liked a more inclusive and open selection process. He tried to get the list of proposed position cuts prior to last Thursday”s special meeting, but the list didn”t come out until the meeting.
“The list was eventually approved at the same meeting, despite the prior lack of details and opportunity for parents, most teachers and their union, and the rest of the community to consider and respond, including some teachers directly affected,” Gilmore said.
In an effort to predict the state budget picture and comply with laws regarding teacher employment, the Fort Bragg Unified School District sent layoff notices this week for 14.2 positions for the 2009-2010 term.
Fort Bragg Teachers Association President Keith Wyner hopes nobody will actually lose their jobs this fall and worries most about the upcoming state ballot measures.
Work rules require layoff notices be sent by March for fall positions that might be axed. In an annual process that has become familiar to educators all over California, the notices are sent out, then the school board and staff work to try to keep from letting anyone go.
“I would call them proposed layoff notices,” Wyner said.
Wyner said the board and superintendent have done a good job of preventing cuts that would injure the quality of education.
“We are very fortunate to have the superintendent we do, who has done his best to minimize these impacts with best-guess estimates,” Wyner said.
Some school districts face bigger cuts announcing draconian cuts such as the entire athletic program in one Bay Area city.
Thanks to good local planning and frugality, Wyner says the local district could weather the storm, but not if voters don”t pass ballot measures in June. The California Legislature recently passed the buck for balancing the budget to voters. If voters reject the ballot measures, schools will be forced to make deeper cuts.
District Superintendent Don Armstrong said the board is facing $1.2 million in cuts, and that is if the state ballot proposals pass in May.
He complimented the school board for being conservative in recent years, thus preventing some of the catastrophe hitting other districts.
Armstrong said the board has made preserving teachers and classrooms its top priority and is looking at taking steps such as using categorical funds to keep teachers.
Categorical funds come for a specific purpose, such as pupil retention or adult education.
Gilmore said Armstrong came to each campus and discussed the difficult budget situation with the staff.
“Don came to every school and talked about budget crisis. He explained this crazy system, how they have to notice people now and how it may not happen later,” he said.
As they stand, the Fort Bragg cuts would hit music and art education the hardest. Gilmore works a 60 percent position, providing music education to most of the student body.
Gilmore”s position was cut during a previous difficult budget season — 1994. That put him on a three-year odyssey of substitute teaching, music gigs and struggling to pay the bills. He came back as music teacher in 1997 and finds himself on the list for the second time.
“Music and art positions were proposed for cutting a few years ago, but the board voted no,” he said.
While he realizes the layoff may not materialize or that he may be offered a different job, he is frustrated there wasn”t more public and teacher input before the list was compiled and voted on.
“If you are not on this cut list, you are home-free for the next year. If you are on it, your job is cut until they tell you it isn”t, ” Gilmore said.
Wyner said the positions proposed for cutting are selected on a combination of factors including seniority, the desire to keep core programs together and spreading out the pain.
“For the record, I will say the school board has been very supportive of art and music programs,” he said.
Wyner said retirements often eliminate the need for firings. He also speculated that President Obama”s stimulus package may bring dollars to local education. It”s too early to bring the entire picture into focus, but not too early to worry.
“If the state measures don”t pass in May, who knows what will happen,” he said.
The school district has until May for layoff announcements for non-teacher employees. The board action tentatively eliminated 14.2 positions. Some teachers hold more than one of the part-time positions cut. The final list of teachers by name hadn”t been released by presstime. Wyner thought it would be about 14 people who got notices.
