Murrieta Teachers to Get Layoff Notices

More than 100 teachers in Murrieta will soon get notice that they may not have a job next year.

Murrieta Valley Unified School District’s board members voted Thursday to issue preliminary layoff notices to 112.5 full-time equivalent positions, 77 of them at the elementary level. The district also recently released 29 temporary teachers.

“The lives of approximately 150 people could potentially be impacted next year,” said Pat Kelley, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources.

According to education code, the notices must be issued by March 15 if there is any possibility the layoffs will take place.

“We are doing this because there is a March 15 deadline and not knowing what the state budget is at this time, we have no choice but to notify them that the possibility is there,” said Board Member Margi Wray.

The layoffs would cause increased class sizes at the elementary level, taking them to 32 students per teacher; they are currently at 24 students per class, according to Kelley. Class sizes at the middle and high school levels would also go up. Thirteen middle school core subject teaching positions are in danger of being eliminated, as are 21.5 teaching positions at the high school level. Core subject classes could reach 35 students in middle and high schools; elective class sizes could go up to 40 and P.E. to 60, Kelley said.

District officials agreed, however, that labor negotiations will continue in an effort to ward off the layoffs.

“As a teacher that has once been pink-slipped, it gives you a bad feeling in the pit of your stomach, like eating a rotten egg,” said Board President Paul Diffley.

A meeting is scheduled Friday with the Murrieta Teachers Association. Last year, 178 layoff notices were issued but because of agreed upon furlough days, no teachers lost their jobs.

“It could happen quickly,” said Superintendent Stan Scheer about reaching an agreement with teachers. “There is a lot of conversation going on, and that is a positive thing.”

If no agreement is reached, final notices would need to go out by May 15.

Scheer said the district will likely ask teachers to take 10 furlough days next year in lieu of the layoffs.

Murrieta Teachers Association President Chuck Smith was not at the meeting Thursday, and could not be reached for comment at the time of publication. Teacher representatives not to take furlough days that were previously given back this year after the district received $4 million from the federal jobs bill. Smith said the intent of that was to keep kids in school.

Classified employees and management continue to take the furlough days.

According to Scheer, the continued budget crisis is due to a possible additional loss of $350 per student from the state next year. The district can not build a budget on whether the tax extensions proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown pass in June, he said. Further, the district must submit its 2011-2012 budget to the Riverside County Office of Education by March 10.

In a previous e-mail, Scheer said that if the state tax extension passes, funding levels would continue at the same level as 2010-2011. If the state budget outlook does not improve, he said the district will need as much cash as can be accumulated. It would call for significant changes in current agreements and/or staff levels to balance the 2011-2012 budget, he said.

This year’s budget includes deferrals of $5 million, Scheer said.

If the tax extensions are not approved, that money, which is deferred until July, would have to be absorbed by next year’s budget. In addition, a proposed limit on Prop 98 funding could mean the loss of another $7 million. Combined, Scheer said those would bring the district to a possible $21-million deficit next year.

The board also voted Thursday on pay reductions of 4.17 percent to 80 certificated non-classroom employees such as athletic directors, counselors, nurses and speech pathologists; 32 classified management employees such as coordinators, directors and supervisors; and 48 certificated administrative employees such as principals, deans and assistant principals.

The 4.17 percent pay reduction for those groups will be taken as eight furlough days in the 2011-2012 school year.

All actions were unanimously approved by the school board Thursday.