Marysville schools warn 30 of layoffs
Official layoff notices will be making the rounds to Yuba-Sutter teachers next week, followed soon after by notices to classified employees, as districts face budgetary shortfalls and funding uncertainty.
Marysville Joint Unified School District trustees voted unanimously Tuesday to proceed with layoff notices to any full-time equivalent certificated positions that have not yet been secured. Fifty-nine notices have already been rescinded, said Ramiro Carreon, assistant superintendent for personnel services, and he expects another dozen will be rescinded in the next few days and others will later follow.
Of the roughly 30 official notices that will be sent by the May 15 deadline, Carreon said he thinks only 12 to 15 teaching positions will be eliminated. Some are due to a loss of categorical funding and others are the result of the district's long term planning for financial solvency.
The preliminary list of eliminated certificated positions included more than 70 in elementary education, two school nurses and two high school counselors, a high school librarian and multiple high school teaching positions in music, German, social science and physical education.
There was no discussion among board members before Tuesday's vote or any comment from the public or teachers' union.
Board members also voted 3-2 to proceed with layoffs to 40.3 full-time equivalent classified employee positions. Jim Boom, Margaret Markle and Bernie Rechs voted yes, Jim Flurry and Frank Crawford voted no, Glen Harris abstained and Phillip Miller was absent.
The eliminated classified positions also include literacy resource technicians, elementary student support and custodian/maintenance workers. Carreon said he expects to send out 50 to 55 classified notices of which most will have the opportunity to return.
But that does not appease the fears for those who receive an official notice, said Tom Page, labor relations representative with the California School Employees Association. A major concern is paraeducators will be laid off, only to have their vacated positions reopened at a reduced amount of hours.
"I cannot believe we are back here a year later and we are back here about cutting paraeducators," Page said. "I don't see how you can maintain services to students if you take these paraeducators away."
Proceeding with layoffs is not a decision board members or the community wants, Rechs said.
"(But) we are in an awkward position, backs against the wall," he said.
California mandates school districts determine the number of layoffs needed for the following school year and initially notify teachers who will lose their jobs by March 15. Two months later, by May 15, school districts are required to make the official layoff decision.
Classified employees must be given 45 days notice of their layoffs.
Yuba City Unified School District trustees unanimously voted April 24 to proceed with layoffs to 27 teachers after rescinding 30 preliminary notices. Of the 27 teachers who are receiving official notices, a number are in vocational and technical education, for which funding has not yet been finalized and other categorically funded positions.
"Our hope is in the end, all the teachers will be back, but we passed this resolution to be cautious and we are still in that cautious mode. Our hope is within the next month, we will know who we are able to bring back," said Tom Walters, assistant superintendent of human resources, adding that he believes most will return.
No members of the public spoke to address the layoffs at the Yuba City Unified meeting.
"A couple years ago when we first started doing this, the room was packed because I think people really thought they were going to be gone the next year, there was no possibility they were coming back," said board member Sharman Kobayashi. "I think people now realize if there is any way that we can keep them, that we are."
CONTACT Ashley Gebb at agebb@appealdemocrat.com or 749-4783. Find her on Facebook at /ADagebb or on Twitter at @ADagebb.
