All Laid Off Beaumont Teachers Returning to Classrooms Next Year, Albeit With More Students, Less Days

After months of talk of layoffs, and the eventual issuance of 39 layoff notices, teachers in Beaumont Unified School District can now breathe a sigh of relief.

That’s because due to a combination of negotiations with the school district that included two weeks of furloughs over the next two years, along with teacher retirements and attrition, the district has found a place for all those teachers—though some of the positions will only be temporary or part-time, according to district officials.

“The good news is that after multiple retirements and other attrition, all pink slipped teachers have been put back into the classroom…though some have only been offered temporary positions, covering teachers who are on leave,” clarified Beaumont Teachers Association President Jody Behrens-Blaul.

One of the teachers who will be brought back is Nicole Simmons, who had spoke to the school board in the heat of the layoff debates, pleading with them not to approve the cuts in the first place. 

"It is rumored many of our jobs will be reinstated after the 15th," .  "Some will be saved due to retirement [of other teachers].  So why is this not already happening? How much longer do we have to be in limbo?  All of us deserve answers-- sooner rather than later."

Simmons—who’s been with the district for four years, but taught in Los Angeles for 18 years prior to that—was laid off on May 14, but was one of the first to have her notice rescinded, 48 hours later, she told Banning-Beaumont Patch.

And though she was extremely grateful to be brought back, she said the whole process has been an emotional rollercoaster.

“[I was thinking] OK, I got my job back, but what about everyone else… it was just a waiting game,” she said.

To get through the tough times, Simmons and 15 other teachers formed a support group to help answer each others’ questions and guide each other through the layoff/re-hire process.  Six of them had already been through the process a few years ago; a particularly draining process, Simmons said.

They called themselves the “positively peeved pink posse.”  Together, they were able to get through the toughest of times and update each other through a special Facebook group.  Now, Simmons is happy to report that her entire group of friends will be back teaching in some capacity next year, and the “PPPP” Facebook group is officially shut down.

Simmons said that now she can “get back to worrying about the students—not about where I’m going to live.”

She’ll be moving from teaching 4^th grade at Palm Elementary to Anna Hause, where she’ll be working with second graders, and says she’s excited to work with a smaller group of students.

Aftermath of negotiations

Despite the good news that the teachers will have jobs next year, the school district has been forced to increase class sizes for some grades and decrease the number of days in the classroom.

“The not so good news is that class sizes have increased in grades one and two,” Behrens-Blaul said.  “This means students in their prime learning-to-read years will have less individualized instruction. For many students, the impact of class size increase will be minimal, however for struggling students the impact could be significant.”

The school district tells Banning-Beaumont Patch that the class size for students in first and second grades will increase from an average of a 20:1 student/teacher ratio, to 25:1.

The district says they are trying their best to maintain class-size reduction first implemented in the early 2000’s—something other districts have long abandoned in the mess of budget cuts, according to Assistant Superintendent Maureen Latham.

According to Assistant Superintendent of Personnel Lisa Norman, due to the furloughs that begin next school year, most grades will see an increase of no more than three students.

What’s more, students will continue to have 175 instructional days in the classroom, meeting state standards, according to Latham.  That’s down five days from this year, and is also due to furloughs.