Community College Layoffs Approved

Despite 11th-hour pleas by faculty and students, the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees voted Wednesday night to issue final layoff notices to 48 full-time instructors.

Thirteen of the notices will be sent to physical education instructors, the hardest hit by the district’s proposed cutbacks.

The layoffs, approved by a 5-1 vote after more than two hours of public testimony and board deliberation, would take effect June 30. That is, if they come to pass.

Physical education officials said outside the board room Wednesday that they expect to negotiate with the district to eliminate the need for layoffs.

“The doors are still open for negotiation, and we are trying to do that at this time,” said Courtney Borio, a physical education instructor at Los Angeles Trade Tech.

Pierce College President David Wolf said he was confident that an accord could still be reached.

“The district board can rescind the layoff notices at any time,” Wolf said. “I am gaining increasing confidence that an agreement can be reached. But I hope it happens soon.”

For the moment, however, the future of athletic programs in the nine-college district is perilous.

The layoffs in physical education would eliminate 53% of the coaches for the district’s 76 athletic programs. Five coaches remain among the 13 physical education instructors on the layoff list.

Thirteen others who coached this season have been reassigned to other academic areas and would not be eligible to coach, Borio said. In addition, 23 part-time coaches would lose their jobs once the layoffs take effect.