72 Pre-schoolers to Lose Spots in Classrooms

The board voted in a special meeting this morning to lay off two teachers and three instructional aides. Two teachers and three instructional aides will face reduced hours, and one teacher will be transferred to another preschool.

Just two days after the board approved a budget Wednesday, the state passed down a 16 percent cut to pre-school funding Friday, or approximately $500,000, according to board trustees.

“We’re outraged at the state for underfunding such an important program such as preschool,” said board President Alisa MacAvoy.

The staff lay-offs mean 72 children will not be able to attend the state funded pre-schools, according to trustee Shelly Masur.

“We have no place to put them,” Masur said. “And this now affects their parents’ abilities to maintain their jobs.”

In a memo, the district wrote that it could not meet the state mandated financial responsibility given the most recent cut. The district then had to call a special meeting to meet the mandatory 45-day notice for lay-offs.

Notices will be mailed out June 30, and the teachers’ and aides’ positions will be terminated on Aug. 15.

Masur added that this most recent cut was nowhere to be found in any of the budgets the state had proposed. MacAvoy said that funding has always been inconsistent, and the board is uncertain whether there may be surprise mid-year cuts as well.

“We potentially won’t be able to provide preschool to dozens of our neediest children, but there’s hasn’t been one cut to prisons,” MacAvoy said, to put things into perspective. She added that depriving these children of a pre-school education puts them at a disadvantage for kindergarten and into further grades in the future.

The teachers who were laid off were put in a 39-month hire, so that if the district were to receive additional funding, it could hire back the teachers immediately without going through a formal hiring and interview process.

“These cuts in no way reflect our pre-school staff’s ability to provide a nurturing environment for our neediest families,” MacAvoy said.

But the board began talks of how to continue providing these crucial services to the families of Redwood City. MacAvoy said the board had to "" to pursue other options.

Because there would be three vacant classrooms, the board members suggested implementing bilingual pre-school programs that would require payment. Those families who could afford to pay full-price could help subsidize those who couldn’t afford an entire pre-school tuition.

However, the district will have to calculate the financial feasibility.

“This is a travesty,” Masur said. “It’s an assault on public education, and it's becoming so difficult to do what’s right for kids with the budgets that we’re getting.”