More teacher layoffs approved in Sacramento school district. How many will lose their jobs?

The Sacramento City Unified School District approved a motion for layoffs Thursday night as the district continues to grapple with a budget deficit.

The decision by the district board marks the beginning of layoff procedures for certificated employees. The layoffs could potentially include core subject teachers, parent participation preschool teachers and special education instructors.

About 50 certificated teacher positions were approved for layoff considerations. An additional four adult education positions and 24 vacant positions were approved for layoffs. The district expects about 33 full-time equivalent positions to receive notices. All but one board member voted to approve the motion. Board member Lisa Murawski abstained.

Certificated employees will be able to request a hearing if they are given pink slips. Final layoff notices will be issued before May 15.

The school board was set to approve a motion for classified employee layoffs as well, but the board chose to delay that decision until the next board meeting, citing a lack of information. Classified staff include bus drivers, custodians and food service employees.

“You have a very serious budget problem where you have to make huge cuts just to stay solvent,” said Sacramento County Superintendent of Schools David Gordon. “You have found yourself in a predicament where you don’t have a choice.”

Teachers and community members told the school board they were upset that information about the potential layoffs were not made available to the public and called for more transparency, especially in light of recent staffing concerns occurring in the district.

Some Sacramento City Unified students have had substitute teachers for several months as the district struggled to fill positions at the start of the new year.

“For SCUSD to consider layoffs with the recruitment and retention crisis among certificated staff demonstrates a total indifference to the educational needs of our students,” read a statement from the Sacramento City Teachers Association. “There are over one thousand students who still don’t have a credentialed teacher in the classroom, further reinforcing the image of our school board as irresponsible, both fiscally and academically.”

SCTA Vice President Nikki Milevsky asked the board to consider the concerns voiced by parents who have been asking why their children didn’t have permanent teachers.

“Here we are in the same position with a lot of lessons you should have learned,” she said.

Chief Human Resource Officer Cancy McArn said last year’s layoffs didn’t cause this year’s increase in substitute teachers. McArn attributed the potential layoffs to several factors, including declining enrollment in the district.

But McArn noted that the projected decline in enrollment has plateaued. By the start of the 2020-2021 school year, about 200 students are projected to leave Sacramento City Unified.

That left union members demanding more answers.

In 2019, Sacramento City Unified approved the motion for layoffs in February, and approved layoffs in May.

At that time, about 179 full-time equivalent positions were approved for layoffs. By May only about 100 layoffs were issued. And by the start of the school year, about 43 were still on the layoff list, unable to return to Sacramento City Unified, according to McArn.

Once employees are issued pink slips, or notices, they are able to request a hearing led by an administrative law judge. Final notices will be issued May 13.

Several district staff members who said they would likely be subject to layoff notices – given their short time with the district – said the layoff process leads to teachers missing class time with students to attend hearings. Some also begin looking for jobs in other area school districts.

SEIU Local 1021 union member Robyn Mutchler works at John F. Kennedy High School, where she said she was laid off twice in the past.

“How am I supposed to take care of my own child if I keep going to work and getting laid off?” Mutchler asked. “There is going to come to a point where a valuable employee like me is not going to come back, and we will go to a district, and their budget is not a hot mess written about in a Sac Bee article.”

This story was originally published February 21, 2020 at 10:41 AM.