L.A. board cuts budget, but delays action on job losses

From The Los Angeles Times: Los Angeles Unified School District officials have approved $140.6 million in budget cuts, but postponed a more difficult decision that could have cost thousands of jobs. The board action balances the books for L.A. Unified's current school year, in part by using new legal flexibility to transfer money originally set aside for other purposes. But the board postponed a decision on $596.1 million in additional cuts for next year that Superintendent Ramon Cortines had previously described as essential to act upon quickly. Employee groups and parents have been pressuring board members about more than 8,500 potential job losses as well as the larger class sizes and reduced services that would result.

FROM MARCH 2009: From The Los Angeles Times: As Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines and the school board attempt to bridge a $718-million budget deficit with widespread cuts and layoffs, supporters of each program, position and school at risk are pointing the finger elsewhere as they try to redirect the budget ax. Parent groups, unions and other organizations have launched campaigns for each potential fiscal victim and rallied their members to make calls and write e-mails and letters.

EARLIER: The Los Angeles school board has approved issuing preliminary layoff notices for the 2009-10 school year to about 9,000 employees. About 2,000 permanent elementary school teachers and about 3,500 probationary teachers will receive notices. The rest of the notices are going to non-teaching personnel, including counselors and administrators. The board approved the action even though teachers union representatives and some board members expressed concern over potential harm to educational quality. Because of the state and national fiscal crises, the district is facing a nearly $700-million shortfall over the next 18 months.
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FROM JANUARY 2009: No Los Angeles Unified School District teachers will be laid off during this school year, officials say. The decision will preserve classroom continuity in the short term, but could lead to a larger budget deficit next year. Earlier this month, the board had given Supt. Ramon C. Cortines the authority to send pink slips to nearly 2,300 instructors. The district is facing at least a $250-million shortfall this year because of the state's financial crisis.
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EARLIER: As many as 2,300 Los Angeles Unified School District teachers could face midyear layoffs because of California's budget crisis. The state deficit has created a shortfall of at least $250 million in the school district's nearly $6 billion budget, prompting officials to propose sending the layoff notices to 1,690 elementary school teachers and 600 math and English teachers in middle and high schools. The teachers at risk would be those with less than two years of service. Read The Los Angeles Times article.