LAUSD To Consider Sending Layoff Warning Notices

Los Angeles - Faced with an estimated $408 million budget deficit in the coming school year, the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education on Tuesday will consider authorizing layoff-warning notices for more than 5,000 employees, including more than 4,000 teachers.

The notices don't necessarily mean all of the employees will lose their jobs for the 2011-12 school year, but the district by law must notify workers that their positions are in jeopardy.

"We must plan for the worst because it just might happen," Deputy Superintendent John Deasy wrote in a memo to the board and Superintendent Ramon Cortines. "In planning for the worst-case scenario, we will be noticing many employees that their jobs may not be available next year. The total number of employees that will receive notices is a function of our worst-case scenario planning and other changes affecting our budget, such as declining enrollment and the ending of federal stimulus funding."

According to the district, most of the affected employees would receive notices no later than March 15. A separate notice would have to be sent by June 30 to notify employees if they would actually lose their jobs.

The board will consider authorizing warning letters to 3,109 permanent elementary teachers and 975 secondary/single-subject teachers, along with 456 permanent support-services personnel, including counselors, social workers and nurses. Three district staff attorneys would also receive notices.

The board will also consider sending layoff notices to 10 non-permanent elementary teachers and 391 non-permanent secondary/single-subject teachers, informing them they will lose their jobs effective June 30. Similar notices would be sent to 104 non-permanent support-services workers, including social workers, counselors, nurses and school psychologists.

Under the terms of a recent settlement of a lawsuit alleging that schools in low-income areas were disproportionately affected by layoffs, workers at 45 schools will be exempted from receiving such notices.

"Cuts this deep will severely limit our ability to meet students' most basic needs," according to A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing LAUSD teachers. "Our students are cheated every time LAUSD increases class sizes, every time LAUSD takes music or art classes away, every time a librarian or nurse is eliminated or a counselor's caseload is raised."

Duffy said the large number of proposed layoffs indicates the district is abandoning its effort to keep cuts away from the classroom.

"UTLA demands that the school board and the superintendent re-evaluate their budget and identify areas of waste and excess to cut," he said. "No pot of money or expenditure should be left unexamined."

The exact number of layoffs will likely depend on whether voters back statewide budget-balancing measures Gov. Jerry Brown hopes to put before voters this summer. Negotiations with the various district employee unions could also affect the number layoffs.

"Without assurance of increased tax revenues or collective bargaining agreements, the district must begin to plan for reductions that are within its power to effectuate," district budget analyst Megan Reilly wrote in a report to the board.

According to the district, the projected budget shortfall for the 2011-12 school year is $408 million. The cumulative deficit over the next three years is estimated at $1.15 billion.