School District to Begin Layoff Notifications

Different year, same budget crisis.

Up against an anticipated $4.3 million deficit in the coming school year, the five-member governing board voted unanimously Tuesday to prepare layoff notices for more than 60 teachers and other certificated employees in the Lemon Grove School District.

Gina Potter, assistant superintendent of business services, said the situation is virtually identical to last year in the number of potential layoffs the district may have to make.

The 10 full-time permanent employee positions targeted for layoff include kindergarten through sixth grade teachers, special education and PE instructors, a principal and an assistant principal.

There are 55 temporary employees—including special education teachers, a social worker, and an extended day program instructor—who may also be subject to layoff. Two preschool teaching positions may also have to go.

Potter said that as a precaution, the district “over notifies” employees that there is a chance they will lose their jobs in the coming school year. The actual number of layoffs could be smaller, she said.

Last year, the district faced a $3.9 million deficit, and notified dozens of teachers and other certificated employees that they could be subject to layoff. Nine permanent, full-time teaching positions were restored, however, including  seven kindergarten-through-sixth grade teachers.

School districts are required by state law to tell teachers by March 15 if there is a possibility that they could lose their jobs next school year.

Budget cuts and decreased enrollment have cost the K-8 district nearly $10 million in recent years. With its current $28.8 million budget, the district is struggling to keep school doors open for about 3,700 students under increasingly dire reductions.

Superintendent Ernie Anastos said there was little choice in making the layoff recommendations.

“There is no way the board or I would choose to do this if we didn’t have to,” he said.

Anastos said the district has been hurt by the state’s fiscal crisis and that many factors in balancing the district budget—such as tax extensions that go before voters in November—are yet unknown.

“What we do know with the data we do have, is that we could be $2.4 to $4.3 million below what we need,” he said. “We are not able to operate this particular organization with $2 or $4 million less.”