LAUSD schools brace for new wave of layoffs
Angel Barrett, principal of Plummer Elementary in North Hills, stays busy at her campus, where she regularly supervises her nearly 1,000 students during meal breaks, answers parent phone calls, translates teacher conferences and even trims rose bushes.
Come next week though, her workload will be growing substantially.
Plummer is set to lose two office clerks and a plant manager Friday, as Los Angeles Unified School District lays off more than 1,100 non-teaching employees to help balance its budget. Plummer already lost a library aide last year, leading to a shutdown of the school's library.
"I am not complaining ... we will find a way to make it work," Barrett said.
"But at some point we are going to have to look at our new education system and figure out how we continue to take care of our infrastructure when we are losing all of our supports."
LAUSD officials closed a $408 million budget deficit for the 2011-12 school year using employee concessions and layoffs, including the loss of office clerks, library aides, campus aides and other school workers.
The final cuts to schools were less drastic than "worst-case scenario" predictions district officials presented in