Eight full-time K-12 jobs eliminated

GUSTINE – The Gustine Unified School District will eliminate eight full-time K-12 teaching positions next year to help scale back its budget in anticipation of deep state funding cuts for 2008-09.

Board members, in a special meeting last Wednesday, approved a resolution to eliminate five elementary school teaching positions, one middle school English position, one high school English position and a special education position.

The cutbacks will also include elimination of a part-time continuation school position, and restructuring of a full-time adult education position into an hourly job.

Superintendent Gail McWilliams said that she expects to deliver layoff notices to the affected employees this week.

The staffing cutbacks may not end there.

McWilliams said that one administrative position may also be eliminated through a restructuring, and that classified positions could be impacted as well, with the possibility of losing three to four positions.

“It was a tough week,” said McWilliams, adding that she met personally with each employee affected by the decision. “These are people who worked for us and have done a good job. We may be talking about positions, but they are people, and they are people who are losing their employment at this point.”

The district, faced with a March 15 deadline for issuing layoff notices to certificated personnel, had little choice but to prepare for a worst-case scenario, she added.

If staffing needs change or future retirements and resignations create job openings, some of those teachers may be hired back.

“I am hoping that we can hire as many back as possible,” said McWilliams.

To the greatest degree possible, the superintendent said, the staffing reductions will be achieved through attrition as employees resign or retire, although approximately five employees will receive layoff notices.

The coming year will be the second in a row that the district has trimmed staff.

Four vacant positions were left unfilled this year, McWilliams noted, but even with those steps the district was overstaffed in light of its declining enrollment. Districtwide, she said, the average student-teacher ratio is currently 18-1.

Three teaching positions will be eliminated at Romero School, but even at that the class sizes will remain favorable, McWilliams commented.

Class sizes in three Romero grade levels are particularly small, she explained.

“They will be at 20 students next year instead of 14,” the superintendent pointed out.

The recommendation of a district budget committee was that the district establish a staffing ratio of 20-1 in grades K-3 and 30-1 at higher grade levels.

At the middle school and high school level, the staff reduction could mean that intervention programs are restructured.

“We were offering additional intervention programs, with smaller class sizes. Some of the classes at the high school had seven students,” McWilliams said. “We will continue to offer intervention, but not with those kinds of numbers.”

While the district is adjusting its staffing levels, she added, it has not eliminated programs to balance its budget.

Several factors could come into play which allow the district to hire back at least some of the teachers who are receiving layoff notices.

A number of teachers are candidates for an early retirement offer, McWilliams said, and if some accept that would create job openings.

And, if the enrollment climbs the district will need to bring back teaching positions.

“Some of our elementary numbers are up in the last month,” she noted. “If they continue to climb through the year, and they show up in the fall, we may have to call back one or two elementary teachers.

The district needs to trim about $800,000 from its coming-year budget to offset the impacts of projected state funding cuts, declining enrollment and fixed increases in operating expenses, the board was told in an earlier meeting.

While the district was forced by the March 15 deadline to make staffing decisions involving certificated personnel, it has more time to address possible reductions in classified staffing.

In addition, the district will consider additional budget-cutting proposals, such as curtailing travel for athletic teams, reducing supply budgets and eliminating some outside contracts for service.