More than 1,000 Los Angeles school workers are expected to lose their jobs after the Board of Education on Thursday approved layoffs and, separately, after district management quietly terminated the employment of workers without tenure or other union job protections.
The termination of the workers who lack due process job protections, including some teachers, transpired without an announcement but has been confirmed by officials.
The Los Angeles Unified board also got its first look at an updated “fiscal stability plan” that calls for cuts totaling more than $3.6 billion over the next three years — which would result in staff cutbacks on a massive scale, pay cuts for remaining employees and the closing of schools. The estimated job reductions in that scenario would be 6,000 or more, approaching 10% of the district’s workforce.
Most of the economic pain is backloaded to take effect starting July 1, 2027 — meaning officials will have a year to try to avoid the worst of these outcomes.
At Thursday’s meeting, acting Supt. Andres Chait spoke of the employees to be affected next month when the school year ends.
“All of us recognize that a reduction in force creates significant uncertainty and personal hardships for employees, families and school communities,” Chait said. “I want to be very clear that this action is not in any way a reflection of employee performance or dedication, but rather a difficult and necessary response to structural fiscal conditions.”
District officials attributed the need for cuts to steadily declining enrollment: The nation’s second-largest school system, with about 390,000 students, is about half as large as in the early 2000s.
Other factors include the expiration of COVID-relief funds, inflation surpassing state funding increases and employee contract settlements. Recent collective bargaining agreements with employee unions, which include substantial raises, will add an estimated $1.5 billion in annual costs to a district budget that stood last year at $18.8 billion.
The school board’s vote was 5 to 2, with officials keen to follow legally required steps and timelines, laid out in union contracts, to make the layoffs stick.
The “yes” votes, which board members said they cast reluctantly, were President Scott Schmerelson, Nick Melvoin, Tanya Ortiz Franklin and Kelly Gonez.
Board members Rocio Rivas and Karla Griego voted no.
“We’re making it a reality that our schools are going to be very much more destabilized than they have been,” Griego said. “To me, this still feels like it’s too much too soon.”
On a percentage basis, the June layoffs may fall most heavily on Local 500 of California School Employees Assn., whose members include clerical workers and library aides. The union has 254 employees on the layoff list.
“Why are the essential workers — the people who support students, teachers, school sites, technology operations, transportation, nutrition services, special education and daily campus operations — being treated as expendable?” said Ruben Alarcon, an IT support representative who addressed the Board of Education standing in front of his CSEA colleagues. “These employees are not the cause of crisis. They are the reason our schools continue functioning despite the crisis.”
“Support staff are stretched thin,” added Alarcon, who is on the layoff list. “Eliminating even more positions will only worsen conditions for students and families.”
The upcoming layoffs also fall heavily on Local 99 of Service Employees International Union, which represents the largest number of non-teaching employees, typically including the district’s lowest paid workers.
Targeted positions include gardeners, bus supervisors and other transportation workers. More than 200 computer technical support workers from Local 99 also had been on the list but are expected to be restored based on recent contract settlements.
The board’s vote on Thursday applied to 657 workers, but a district spokesperson said the hope is that number will eventually fall to about 150 — again, based on agreements with unions and also on natural attrition and transfers of those affected to available open positions.
Not part of the board’s Thursday action are employees who lack union job protections, including some who have worked for lengthy periods under temporary status.
Among these workers, the district has issued “non-renewal notices” to 291 with teaching credentials, including 181 elementary teachers, and, at the middle and high level, 15 English teachers and 45 social science teachers.
In addition, 51 pupil services and attendance counselors on temporary contracts will be let go, according to the district.
Among 458 additional non-teaching employees losing jobs will be 114 campus aides, 107 community representatives, 143 instructional aides and 336 school supervision aides.
Local 99 Executive Director Max Arias vowed to reverse the remaining layoffs of his members, saying the district violated due-process rules.
Notwithstanding the cuts, the new union contracts included some expansions, such as additional psychiatric social workers and counselors and modest class size reductions.
A grim outlook
The three-year budget project was a list of unwanted outcomes. Melvoin described it with a six-letter profanity for manure.
The projected cuts included near-total elimination of special discretionary aid to high-need schools and a separate program that provides academic and emotional support to Black students and others with similar needs.
In addition to thousands of layoffs, school employees would face seven days of unpaid furloughs and have to begin contributing to their monthly health insurance premiums.
The fiscal stability plan is part of a balancing act that requires the district to prove it can remain solvent over each of the next three years — despite uncertainties about the state budget and the economy that fuels it.
If the state economy remains healthy, much but not all of this deficit would decline over time, provided that the state continues current grants and that general state-funded school revenues continue to increase annually. However, state rules do not allow the district’s budget planners to take such a positive future outlook into account.
Local 99 leader Arias dismissed the necessity of the three-year austerity plan.
“I don’t think it takes into account potential new revenues,” he said. “We still don’t believe that there’s such a financial crisis that merits such action.”
The final version of the fiscal stability plan is scheduled to go before the board in June.
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