First teachers, now classified staff face layoffs
| Saturday, May 02 2009 12:00 PM
Last Updated Saturday, May 02 2009 12:00 PM
First the teachers, now the classified staff.
The unsung heroes in schools -- computer techs, instructional aides and bus drivers -- face layoff notices this past week and next.
Teachers learned if they would be re-hired, or let go in mid-March, a date negotiated in their contracts.
Now the janitors, security guards and food service workers who see kids every day in Kern County schools are learning their fates.
More than 100 classified staff in the Kern High School District will likely to receive layoff notices.
Some of the layoffs will hit people working in special education, the Regional Occupational Center and the Bakersfield Adult School, but due to seniority "bumping" rules, layoffs will occur throughout the district, including district offices, according to spokesman John Teves.
Last year KHSD laid off more than 162 staffers but before the new school year began, 123 were "made whole," meaning rehired at the same job or pay rate.
Most of the other staffers also were offered jobs, some with fewer hours or a different pay rate.
Classified staff in KHSD get 45 days notice of a layoff, but that can occur any time of year.
As for other districts:
* Fruitvale School District will issue layoff notices to 19 classified staff, including 12 instructional aides, five computer lab technicians and two custodians.
Last year the district brought back all its classified staff, but Superintendent Carl Olsen said that would be "difficult to do this year" due to the growing state deficit.
Olsen noted that if instructional aides were able to pick up more training, they might be eligible for Title I or English Language Development-funded positions, which remain fully funded by the federal government.
* Rosedale Union School District will lay off three bus drivers this year. The district is altering its school start times to build more efficiency into bus transportation, so it will need fewer drivers.
Rosedale made tough layoff decisions one year ago and reduced 11 positions, including four instructional aides.
The district employed 210 classified employees this year.
* Bakersfield City School District will issue 77 layoff notices, or to about 5 percent of its classified staff.
Of those, 37 are instructional aides and eight are bi-lingual aides working in classrooms.
California School Employees Association Labor Relations Representative Michael Noland was frustrated so many classified staffers were being laid off in BCSD schools compared to other types of positions.
"We believe in the 'fair share' concept of spreading money around when it comes in, and when it goes out the door," Noland said.
* The Panama-Buena Vista Union School District board has not yet approved layoff numbers, but will do so by its next meeting.
These layoffs are probably just a continuation of education cuts that began last year.
The uncertainty about the passage of the May 19 propositions and the state's declining revenues mean more cuts are likely.
"It's going to be tough over the next three years," Fruitvale's Olsen said.
