Well, it looks like nobody heeded my call to stop making education news while I was on vacation last week. The big news while I was out: The San Diego Unified school board decided to press its labor unions to put off promised pay increases it granted just one year ago and extend mandatory unpaid days off.
Those steps would be part of a larger plan that would use $32 million in added state revenue to spare jobs for teachers, counselors and other school workers. That money hinges, in part, on tax extensions that are still in doubt, so relying on it to restore jobs could be risky.
School board members said the controversial plan would control class sizes in the youngest grades, which would otherwise balloon to roughly 30 students next year. The plan also sketches out some future savings and revenues, including closing schools and selling off property, to help with future deficits.
San Diego Unified is now facing a $114 million deficit, leading to layoffs for more than 750 teachers and hundreds of other school workers. That has also lead the school board to grapple with the decision it made last year to promise pay increases in the last year of a three-year contract with its employees.
