SACRAMENTO, CA -- The Sacramento City Unified School District is the latest to propose teacher layoffs and larger class sizes as a way to ease its budget crisis.
Superintendent Jonathan Raymond's proposal calls for laying off about 340 teachers and 60 counselors, social workers and psychologists, about 30 school administrators and five high school clerical workers. His plan would also increase class size in kindergarten through third grade from 25 students per class to 30 students.
"We are asking the school board to make cuts in the budget that definitely will impact our ability to educate our children, Raymond said. "We are hopeful that our continuing discussions with our employee bargaining units will be successful and we will successful and we will be able to avert some of the job losses and some of the class size increases.
Raymond says the district is facing a $30.6 million dollar deficit for the 2010-11 budget. His proposal would cut $5.95 million from the district's administrative budget, including a 10 percent central office budget cut, the elimination of 87 central office jobs, and preliminary layoff notices to 63 central office employees.
Raymond is calling for union concessions from the teachers. A news release issued Wednesday from the school district says "teachers pay virtually nothing for health care. If the employee bargaining units would agree to a $50 per month insurance premium and three furlough days, the same number as Superintendent Raymond and other unrepresented employees, the district could save $5.1 million and save up to 68 teachers' jobs."