Jan 13, 2009 6:00 pm US/Pacific
LAUSD Approves Layoffs Of Nearly 2,300 Teachers
LOS ANGELES
Facing a budget shortfall of up to $400 million, the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education authorized the dismissal of as many as 2,290 nonpermanent teachers.
Teachers with the least seniority will be the first to go, but the district's superintendent insisted that no layoffs were imminent.
"Before anyone gets a notice from this district, I will come back to the board and make a final recommendation because I am still trying to find alternatives other than doing this," LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines told the board.
The board voted 4-2 -- with Julie Korenstein and Richard Vladovic dissenting -- to authorize the notices. Board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte was absent.
The board action authorizes possible termination notices for as many as 1,690 elementary teachers, 300 secondary English teachers and 300 secondary math teachers.
According to a staff report presented to the board, the employees would be given the chance to work as day-to-day substitute teachers as needed.
Fired probationary employees would be placed on a re-employment list for 39 months, and if teachers need to be hired at some point, people on the list with the earliest seniority date will receive the first employment offers.
The possibility of layoffs has been greeted with outrage from United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing the school district's teachers.
Union officials noted that authorizing the notices could be just a procedural step that may not lead to actual layoffs.
But should teachers actually be sent packing, the move would hurt graduation rates and achievement on standardized tests, UTLA President A.J. Duffy told the Daily News.
According to the newspaper, laying off 2,290 teachers would save the district more than $137 million over a full year.
Since these cuts would be mid-year, the layoffs would result in savings of no more than $68.5 million, district Chief Financial Officer Megan Reilly told the newspaper.
District officials have said the LAUSD is already facing a shortfall of nearly $400 million and, depending on possible education funding cuts in the state budget, the deficit could grow even larger.
Unlike permanent teachers, who must be notified in March if they will not have a job in the upcoming school year, nonpermanent teachers -- those who have worked for two years or less -- need to be given only two weeks' notice.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
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