Ten of those positions include elementary school music program teachers. The teachers’ union president calls the vote for layoffs “premature” and based on conservative budget projections that “are almost unlikely to materialize.”
By Jonathan Friedman / Special to The Malibu Times
At the request of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District staff, the Board of Education last Thursday night gave the go-ahead for a reduction of 92 employees, including teachers, nurses and counselors. Depending on various circumstances, the number of employees who actually will lose their jobs could be much lower.
Ninety-two is the maximum amount of layoffs the financially troubled district could have in what Board Member Jose Escarce dubbed “the worst-case scenario.” At the next board meeting on March 4, district staff will let the board know if, and by how much, that amount could be reduced. Factors that could lower the number of layoffs include the teachers union ratifying a labor agreement on furloughs, something SMMUSD staff in the Service Employees International Union recently did, and the announcement of retirements and employees voluntarily leaving the district for other reasons.
Harry Keiley, president of the Santa Monica-Malibu Classroom Teachers Association, opposed Thursday’s vote, calling it “premature.” He said the amount of layoffs was based on projections for next year’s budget that were too conservative.
“The assumptions within this budget are so conservatively presented to you that they are almost unlikely to materialize,” Keiley said. “And therefore the number of layoffs that are being presented to you this evening is excessive.”
Keiley said he was also disappointed that no administrative jobs were targeted for elimination. Mike Matthews, assistant superintendent for human resources, said a proposal on that subject would come before the board on March 4 because “we’re still analyzing that and putting dollar amounts on that.”
Keiley said after the meeting there was no reason the proposal could not have been ready for that evening.
Among those targeted for layoffs are all 10 teachers of the elementary music program. Several public speakers said it would be detrimental to music education in the district to knock out the entire elementary program.
“Can you imagine students doing well in advanced math if they didn’t have any basic math at the elementary school level?” asked music education advocate Virginia Kohfeld.
Others targeted for layoffs include 42 elementary school teachers, 22 middle school teachers, seven middle school and high school counselors, six persons from the child development program and three nurses.
The board will vote to finalize the number of layoffs at its March 4 meeting. By state law the district must notify those employees by March 15. Depending on other scenarios, including the passage of the parcel tax measure on May 25, the number of layoffs could be further reduced by the time the board votes on the 2010-11 fiscal year budget on June 18. Also, the SMMUSD is in the dark on how much money it will be receiving from the state, its biggest financial contributor, and will likely remain in that position for a long time.
“I remain hopeful that we can knock down the number of layoffs to the bare minimum, [or] hopefully do a repeat of this last year where we didn’t have to lay off anybody,” Board Member Ben Allen said.
Board members Ralph Mechur and Oscar de la Torre wanted to hold off on voting for the layoffs because further information about the district’s budget situation could be coming soon. Matthews advised against the idea because he wanted district staff to begin working on the layoff process with an initial number, so he could come to the March 4 meeting with accurate information for a final board vote prior to the March 15 layoff notice deadline.
“It is incredibly important for us to be not just mostly accurate, but exactly accurate when it comes to this,” Matthews said, adding, “The longer you wait, the greater chance for an error in this process by rushing it.”