‘We Have No Other Option’; School District Proposes Cutting 910 Positions

The San Diego Unified School District announced March 1 that it has run out of options and plans to cut 910 jobs. The school district, which includes the public schools in La Jolla, is expected to vote on the cuts at its March 10 meeting. The cuts are necessary to resolve the estimated $120 million budget deficit for the 2011-12 school year.

Under state law, educators must be notified of the layoffs by March 15. About half of the proposed cuts would affect elementary school teachers. The proposed staff cuts would increase class size from 22 students to 29.5 students for kindergarten through third grade. Proposed cuts also include eight principals, 25 vice principals, 42 nurses and 59 counselors.

In previous years, most of the teacher layoff notifications were rescinded before the jobs were actually eliminated. District officials have said that because of the state and district budget deficits, the chances are slimmer that layoff notices will be rescinded this time.

“Right now we have no other option,” said board member Scott Barnett. He said he would like to consider options such as cutting back health coverage for school district employees, although the school board could not make that decision.

“There are other options [the district] can look at, but we can’t look at them,” said Barnett. “We need our partners to work with us to find solutions.”

Board member Kevin Beiser, who is also a teacher, said he is not ready to issue pink slips.

“I want to do everything I can possibly do to hold the line on class sizes, to prevent laying off my fellow teachers, to find the resources to prevent laying off music and band teachers, to prevent laying off nurses and counselors and to preserve the other programs that are important to our children’s education,” Beiser said.

In an attempt to reduce job cuts, school board President Richard Barrera sent a letter to Mayor Jerry Sanders and the City Council on Feb. 25 asking that a list of redevelopment projects being considered by council members be amended to include a $64 million advance to the school district. City Attorney Jan Goldsmith said the request was not an addition to the redevelopment list, but an amendment to a 1992 cooperation agreement between the Centre City Development Corporation and the school district. The item could not be added to the council’s March 1 agenda because it would have violated the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law.

City News Service contributed to this story.