Unions and Saddleback Valley School Board Join Forces to Lobby for Governor’s Tax Extensions

A coalition of teacher and employee unions from the Saddleback Valley Unified Schools—along with its elected board of education—is launching an all-out lobbying effort this week to pressure legislators to put Gov. Jerry Brown’s on the state ballot this June.

“If the tax extensions are not passed, the school district would lose $10 million a year,” Superintendent Clint Harwick said at the school board's Tuesday night meeting. “Our district has already made $58 million in cuts over the last three years, including 276 positions lost. And union groups have already made $26 million in employee concessions.”

Starting Wednesday, members of four Saddleback Valley Unified unions will be contacting legislators, trying to win support for Brown’s budget plan, Harwick told the board. The governor had set a self-imposed deadline of Thursday, March 10, for legislators to authorize a June special election to extend billions of dollars in taxes.

“I just can’t conceive of how devastated public education is going to be if these don’t pass,” said Lisa Eck, executive director of the Saddleback Valley Educators Association, which represents the district’s teachers.

The Saddleback Valley Management Team Association, California School Employees Association and Saddleback Valley Personnel Services Association are the other unions in the coalition.

At the district's last board meeting, .

 “All we’re doing is asking that the people get the opportunity to vote,” board President Susie R. Swartz said after the meeting. “Balancing this budget can’t be done with cuts alone.”

In January, state Sen. Mimi Walters, who represents Lake Forest, told Patch that . Local state Assemblyman Don Wagner has also spoken out against Brown's tax proposal.

The lobbying effort follows the board voting Tuesday night to authorize the district to issue layoff notices for more than 100 jobs for teachers, library clerks and other positions. Under a for the 2011-12 school year, the district could close an elementary school and see class sizes balloon at both the primary and secondary grade levels.

The district has begun to identify schools that could be deemed “surplus property” and then closed. A list of schools being considered for that “surplus” designation could be circulated as early as this spring, at which point public hearings would be held, Harwick said after the meeting.

By law, the school district must notify teachers who are at risk of layoff by March 15. Often, many of those teachers are rehired after a state budget is passed and the district has a clearer picture of its finances for the coming year.

Among the employees who will be receiving pink slips are at least 18 elementary school teachers and 49 secondary school teachers, an elementary school principal, seven library media clerks, six Language Arts Assistance Program instructional assistants and a plant foreman.

The exact number of employees who will receive pink slips is unclear, as many of the jobs targeted for elimination are part time. But they add up to the equivalent of 72.3 full-time teaching positions and 30.27 full-time classified employees.

In other action at the meeting, the board heard a report on the state of visual and performing arts education in the district. The board also passed a resolution proclaiming March as Arts Education Month.