More than 120 layoffs proposed in L.A. school district budget
A $7.5-billion Los Angeles schools budget set for approval Tuesday includes 121 layoffs and 180 “reassignments” that would result in pay cuts and possible additional job losses.
Among the hardest hit in the proposal are library aides: 30 would lose their jobs, leaving 43 elementary schools without library staffing because some of the aides work at two campuses. That’s about 9% of the library aides in the nation’s second-largest school system.
Others who would lose their jobs include some clerks, payroll specialists, accounting technicians, teaching aides and security aides. The number of central office administrators, coordinators and managers also would shrink by about 150. Many of them have tenure as school administrators or teachers and could return to these other positions — with reduced pay. The district believes it will have enough vacancies to accommodate them.
No teachers are targeted for layoffs. Although declining enrollment means fewer positions for instructors, the reduction is expected to come through attrition, such as teacher retirements.
The hardest direct hit would be on Los Angeles 500, the local chapter of the California School Employees Assn., whose membership would be hit by 87 layoffs and 120 reassignments, said union President Letetsia A. Fox.
“It’s like we’re being punished for asking for and receiving a raise,” said Fox, who is the senior financial manager for Dorsey High School in the Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw area.
Her union members, who include library aides, clerks, accounting specialists and technicians, received a 9.96% raise over a three-year contract that ends in June. Fox’s members earn as little as $13 an hour, she said, even though the district announced three More than 120 layoffs proposed in L.A. school district budget - LA Times: