50 Told They Are Being Laid Off by Orange Schools

Fifty teachers, principals, librarians and other white collar employees of the Orange Unified School District began receiving layoff notices Monday following a school board decision last week to cut programs to reduce costs.

Mario Losi, personnel director of the financially troubled district, said the moves constitute “a bleak day for Orange Unified.” And a leader of the teachers union assailed the action as “appalling, unnecessary and a needless trauma to teachers.”

Wilma Wittman, president of the Orange Unified Education Assn., which represents more than 1,000 white-collar workers, including about 950 teachers, said the association will oppose the layoffs.

Altogether, 109 employees were sent an identical letter warning of either layoffs or reassignment. Of those, 50 face layoffs, school officials said, with the rest facing reassignment. Noting that the same announcement was sent to both groups, Wittman said this demonstrates the district’s “poor planning, insensitivity to employee needs and continued helter-skelter operation.”

Among those facing layoffs are the district’s nine special reading teachers, a move Losi called “one of the most devastating cuts.”

Although other school districts dismissed their special reading teachers in previous years, he said, the Orange Unified School District has “hung onto those people. They are among our highest priorities and among the very last programs to be cut.”

Also facing the ax are 13 administrators, including five principals and one assistant principal. The district’s librarians would also be reduced by 2.5 positions, including two from the district’s four high schools--a move that would require cutting high school libraries’ operating hours by half, Wittman said.

District spokeswoman Jacque Wilson agreed that the reduction in the number of librarians “would severely limit the library services that could be provided to students,” but said “actual schedules have not yet been discussed.”

She noted that although the Board of Education approved a resolution “authorizing the reduction of programs that will result in the layoff(s),” actual cuts have yet to be determined and administrators are working with “proposed budget program reductions.”

‘Not Absolutely Certain’

Wittman said the association will meet today with each of the 109 employees, each of whom has already been given written information explaining the procedure for appealing. The association also will provide legal assistance to help the teachers and administrators retain their jobs, she said.

The district’s letters were sent Friday by certified mail. The targeted employees also were given hand-delivered notices by their principals or supervisors, Losi said.

It has become standard practice at budget time for school districts to notify employees targeted for possible layoffs, but often, the layoffs are never implemented before the next school term begins.

Although in the Orange District the “situation seems dismal,” it is “not absolutely certain” that the 50 educators will be dismissed, Losi said.

The district’s spending plans for school year 1985-86 are based on Gov. George Deukmejian’s preliminary budget message which called for a 5.9% cost-of-living increase. However, the actual level of state funding won’t be known until late summer, long after the budget is submitted, Losi said.

“We’re building our budget with all of the things from the governor’s budget message in mind,” Losi said. Because of the requirement that school districts submit balanced budgets before they know how much money they will have, “you try to go in as conservative as you can,” he said.

Last October, district administrators discovered an unexpected $4.5-million deficit in their operating budget. Since then, a number of cutbacks in educational programs have been implemented, and the district’s entire reserve fund of more than $3 million has been used to balance the budget.

Despite the severity of the crisis, the district reluctantly gave all employees a 4.5% pay raise, the increase for teachers retroactive to July 1, 1984. Losi noted that the teachers received no salary increase the previous year.

School Closing

Wittman said she and other association officials believe the layoffs will prove unnecessary. “It is our belief that once the year ends and the budget reports are in place, there will be funds to balance the budget,” she said.

The district operates schools in Orange, Villa Park, the unincorporated area of Silverado and portions of Anaheim, Garden Grove and Santa Ana. Because of declining enrollment and to solve its budgeting problems, the Board of Education has voted to close Peralta Junior High School at the end of the school year.

In addition, the board is considering closing four elementary schools: Panorama, Riverdale, Villa Park and Jordan.

District enrollment peaked in the 1970s with more than 31,000 students. About 24,600 students are now enrolled, and that figure is expected to decline in coming years. In the past two years, four schools have been closed.