O.C. schools finalize more than 1,500 teacher cuts
Orange County's public school districts will slash at least 1,546 jobs for teachers, counselors, administrators and other certificated employees.
That’s 17 percent less than the amount targeted in March, when districts issued preliminary layoff notices.
Teachers and students wore black and pink as they walked from Ocean View High School to Beach Blvd., in Huntington Beach to protest teacher layoffs in this file photo from March.
ROSE PALMISANO, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
State law requires school districts to issue final notices by May 15 to teachers and other certificated staff.
Many districts have also issued preliminary notices to classified employees – secretaries, aides, bus drivers and other classified employees. Districts have targeted the elimination of least 388 classified jobs. All job cuts would become effective at the end of the current school year.
Educators blame the staff cuts on the state's ongoing budget crisis. The county's cash-strapped districts have cut $850 million from budgets over three years by eliminating hundreds of jobs, cutting music and arts, increasing class sizes, and imposing scores of other cuts to programs and services.
Orange County's 28 school districts, with 500,000 students, employ more than 21,000 teachers and 22,000 support personnel.
The vast majority -- about 1,134 -- of the 1,546 certificated employees losing their jobs were teachers working on one-year contracts. These teachers were told their contracts would not be renewed for next year. The rest were permanent teachers and other full-time staff.
In March, school districts issued preliminary layoff notices to about 2,100 certificated employees. Four unified school districts, Orange, Santa Ana, Newport-Mesa and Tustin, received extensions until later this month to finalize certificated layoffs because of appeal hearings. Those districts issued a combined 377 layoff notices in March.
Districts typically overestimate preliminary notices to give themselves leeway while the state finalizes budget