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Teachers, school bus drivers, librarians and counselors will be laid off. Classes will increase in size. Schools could close. Students will pay higher fees for sports, music, art and drama programs. And computer classes? Forget about it! If this sounds like some draconian education nightmare, it’s time to wake up and see the sea of red ink flowing all over your principal’s desk. Many public schools in the Inland Empire are going to take big hits next year, thanks to a $4.8 billion statewide cut in education proposed by Gov. Schwarzenegger. Our public schools are in turmoil. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell announced in March that an estimated 20,000 teachers, counselors, librarians, nurses and support staff statewide received potential layoff notices. By law, school districts had to send out notices by March 15 to teachers and other personnel who could be laid off at the end of the school year. Districts often rescind many notices later. Layoff notices stay in force until budgets are adopted in June. If the state’s budget isn’t yet final, schools will have a hard time planning for “back to school,” and classes could be reshuffled at the last minute. What does all this mean for us? Riverside County K-12 public education faces a reduction of about $320 million. In San Bernardino County, public schools face a reduction of $225.6 million, according to their county offices of education. Program cuts, reductions and layoffs will vary from school district to school district and campus to campus, with those in declining enrollment cutting even more. With the potential for so many teachers to get laid off, educators predict that drop-out rates will rise and test scores will fall at schools that increase the size of classes because students will be receive less individual attention from teachers. Pink slips galore The lives of countless teachers also have been thrown into turmoil. Third-grade teacher Christina Kolley was named Teacher of the Year for 2008 at her school, Don Juan Avila Elementary School in Aliso Viejo, but Kolley received a layoff notice anyway, despite having tenure for 7 years. A single mother of 2, Kolley says she may look for work as a substitute teacher or tutor, or leave the profession and go back into accounting. Parents are scared, too, says Kolley. If the Capistrano Unified School District goes through with plans to scrap the 20:1 student-teacher ratio for classes in grades K-3, parents will “freak” when they bring their children to school next fall and see K-3 classes with 32 students. “It’s going to be a huge year of adjustment,” Kolley says. “Many parents have asked if it’s too late to get into private school. They pay a lot of money in taxes, and both parents work in many cases so they can live in Aliso Viejo and their kids can get a good education. It’s being messed up.” Patty O’Neill has taught kindergarten through 4th grade for 8 years at Melinda Heights Elementary School in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District. This year, O’Neill, a 9-year temporary teacher without tenure, is being dismissed. O’Neill says she may look for a teaching job with a private school in Orange County, and she anticipates that many parents will transfer their children from public to private schools. “My students’ parents are saying that with the cost of tutoring and all the extras they pay for, they’re considering private school,” she says. Parents who have older children in high school have told O’Neill they may remove them from public schools in the Saddleback district. The district is considering cutting its International Baccalaureate Program and lowering the minimum number of course credits students need to graduate from high school, from 230 units to 220 units, meaning less instructional time for college-bound students. “Once we start curbing these things, more and more kids across the nation will be more competitive (for colleges) than ours,” says O’Neill. Proposed cuts vary School districts face cuts of varying degrees based on projected enrollment and individual budgets. Here’s a sample of proposed cuts around the Inland Empire. (An unknown number of teachers and staffers who got layoff notices may not lose their jobs when budgets are adopted.) > The Temecula Valley Unified School District faces a $10 million budget cut. Pink slips went out to 111 teachers. The district has promised to keep the class-size-reduction program, but is considering cutting bus transportation for regular education students and possibly closing up to 3 elementary schools with low enrollment. Zero enrollment growth is predicted. > The Riverside Unified School District will close Grant Elementary School, the district's oldest campus dating back to the 1880s. The projected budget shortfall for this district is $23.6 million. Fifty teachers and 15 credentialed managers received pink slips, but more teachers and non-teaching employees could lose jobs. The elementary school counseling program was eliminated. > In the San Bernardino Unified School District, more than 150 teachers may be laid off. Enrollment is predicted to decline slightly. > The San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools Office issued 14 layoff notices to teachers in student service programs, such as special education. > The most layoff notices issued by any district in San Bernardino County came from the Rialto Unified School District, which has declining enrollment and issued pink slips to 300 teachers and employees. fam Amy Bentley is a contributing writer to Inland Empire Family Magazine. Send your comments on this topic to the editor. go to: inlandempirefamily.com and click on “Feedback” |
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