SAN DIEGO — Raising their signs and their voices, teachers and other San Diego Unified School District employees rallied Tuesday, speaking out against hundreds of impending layoffs.
Teachers in the San Diego Unified School District have received layoff notices along with hundreds of other support staff.
Many came out to Tuesday night's board meeting, protesting these pink slips both outside and inside.
The raucous rally outside district headquarters also continued briefly inside the Board of Trustees meeting, making their message clear.
"We are out here to fight because the Board of Trustees unanimously voted to issue pink slips to our educators," said Lisa Morris, who teaches TK and kindergarten.
Among them is seventh-grade English teacher Spencer Fowler.
"I was devastated," he told CBS 8. "This is my community.. I work in my community school, I live in North Park, work in a North Park school. To get that was devastating."
In all, more than 480 positions are potentially being eliminated, including teachers, special education staff, bus drivers, cafeteria workers and administrators.
"The morale is really low right now," said Andrew Alcala, an English teacher at Crawford High School.
Teachers said that these cuts will have devastating impacts both in and out of the classroom.
"Not only does it de-stabilize schools, it breaks up communities," said Morris, "It makes teachers feel vulnerable, and it's going to make them want to go work in other districts."
"We're trying to recruit and retain new educators, and if new educators see this, they have an opportunity to go in a different direction with their career," said teacher Kisha Borden.
In a statement, the SDUSD school board president said that "As a district, we are committed to balancing our budget without significant impacts to students and school sites," adding that these potential staff reductions are the result of losing Covid relief funds, declining enrollment and decreased state revenue projections.
These teachers, though, don't buy that rationale, countering that the district has enough in its reserves to avoid these layoffs.
"They are not necessary," said Morris.
"They can save everyone," added Alcala. "It is just a matter of choosing to do the right thing."
The Board's president also said the district is working to try to minimize the ultimate number of layoffs, through attrition and available reserves before these layoffs are finalized on May 15.
Here is the full statement from SDUSD Board President Shana Hazan:
"As a district, we are committed to balancing our budget without significant impacts to students and school sites. Over the last year, our team has worked to thoughtfully and strategically build a budget that considers the needs of our children first and foremost. Our current staffing projections and potential staff reductions are the result of a combination of the loss of nearly $540 million in COVID relief funds, declining enrollment, and decreased state revenue projections. We are grateful for our hardworking and committed San Diego Unified team and know that having to lay off even one employee is extremely significant. While we have given layoff notices to hundreds of employees, we are maximizing attrition and available reserves to minimize layoffs, and we are hopeful we can continue to reduce the actual number of employees affected before May 15 when reductions are to be finalized."
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