BLOODY MONDAY: Nearly 1,000 Layoff Notices Delivered This Week
This week the District will deliver hundreds, maybe even close to 1,000, layoff notices to TALB unit members. The effect this move will have on our schools will be felt for years to come. Responsibility partially lies with the State Government who is responsible for funding our schools. Voters/taxpayers also bear some responsibility for their refusal to support school funding measures such as Measure T. But the depth of layoff is also attributable to recent decisions made by our School Board.
VOODOO CUTS? The District already has slated many more teachers for layoff than is ultimately necessary, even with the severe drop in funding. Retirements, leaves, and the reported plan to partially restore Class Size Reduction in some schools using site based categorical money means that the final layoff tally will be less than the announced layoffs of about 700 teachers.
Now reports are surfacing that the District will issue nearly 1,000 layoff notices…far more than even their announced cuts can justify. We can only speculate on their reasons for such a massive issuance of layoff notices. It could be part of an attempt to secure salary and benefit reductions by over issuing layoff notices and then offering to “trade” salary reductions (e.g., furloughs) and benefit cuts for jobs they never planned on cutting in the first place. Or it could be because the layoff process is woefully disorganized and they are “over-noticing” teachers because their credentialing and seniority data is disorganized and they can’t accurately pinpoint who really should get a notice, so they are casting a wide net.
Whatever the reason, it is simply wrong for the District to issue one more notice than is absolutely necessary. Putting as many as 500 additional teachers through this process if they are ultimately not going to be laid off is just not the way to treat people. It is also hard to escape the irony that at the same time they may issue nearly 1,000 notices, the District reported in January that they had just about 1,000 managers. (Read more from the UPDATE newsletter here.)
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