In what has become an unpleasant, but eventually meaningless ritual of spring, eight Fort Bragg Unified School District teachers will get layoff notices on March 15, after unanimous action by district trustees last week.
“I”m hopeful we can bring them all back, but ultimately we are in the hands of Sacramento,” Superintendent Don Armstrong said. “In the best case, the tax proposal passes and there are no layoffs.”
The eight teachers total 7.1 positions because some are part-time, including the music and art teachers at Dana Gray, who have found themselves on, then off, the chopping block in each of the past three years.
Twelve teacher retirements have been announced for this year, making the situation easier, Armstrong told the board.
“We have been very fortunate in our budgeting over the past several years that we have not been subject to the very painful cuts that other districts have had to face,” Armstrong said.
Teacher layoff notices actually come from special protections won by the California Teachers” Association. At one time, teachers could be laid off anytime after school ended, making it hard to get a new job by the fall term.
Now, teachers and administrators must get a preliminary notice by March 15, with a final notice due by May 14, Armstrong explained. As state budgets have come in later and later, districts have had to guess at just how bad the state budget will be for local schools. If the district guesses too low, it ends up in the red with no way to implement layoffs for teachers later. Other categories of employees can be laid off at a later date and thus don”t get early notices.
The district could face bigger cuts this year if the California Legislature does not manage to get a tax proposal on the June ballot, seeking to extend temporary existing tax rates. So far, Gov. Jerry Brown has not been able to get Republican cooperation in that proposal.
The board heard an array of financial possibilities, in which the state is considering cutting, borrowing, withholding funds or cutting programs. One idea is to cut class size controls, resulting in larger classes and a need for fewer teachers.
“While [Gov. Brown”s] budget proposal limits cuts to schools in 2011-12, it defers more than $2 billion in funding owed to schools and students until 2012-2013,” Armstrong told the board.
“Over the past several years, more than $7 billion in funding owed to K-12 students has been deferred. Students now receive about 80 cents for every dollar promised under state law. This comes on top of the loss of $7 billion in federal stimulus funds that has helped districts avoid the most severe cuts to schools and students.”
On the good news front, Armstrong and district Financial Officer Kathryn Charters detailed savings, grants and other proposals that will make 2011-2012 much more bearable, if the state finds ways not to cut much deeper into education this year.
Teacher layoffs have been controversial at times in recent years. No member of the public spoke on the issue at last week”s meeting.
“That is something we just don”t like to do,” Armstrong said after the vote.
