Layoff Notices Could Cut 22 JC Programs

Layoff notices approved Wednesday night by the Los Angeles Community College District could eliminate as many as 22 intercollegiate athletic programs in the nine-school system, a faculty spokesman said.

In addition, as many as 33 full-time physical education instructors would be affected if the proposed layoffs go through, according to Trade-Tech Athletic Director Courtney Borio.

Borio attended part of the district board meeting in Los Angeles, but had left before Trustees voted, 4-3, to issue 59 layoff notices to full-time faculty members in 20 disciplines, including 17 in physical education.

In a separate action, the board eliminated five substitute teaching positions in physical education that had been filled by instructors who were laid off last year.

As a result, 11 PE instructors who were served layoff notices last year will be transferred to other disciplines, Borio said.

In all, that adds up 33 instructors hired after 1973 who could be lost to physical education departments and coaching through layoff or transfer, Borio said.

The board action would affect 22 instructors who coached intercollegiate athletic teams during the 1986-87 school year. There were 56 intercollegiate athletic teams in the district this school year, down from 74 the year before.

“I didn’t expect any of this because of the condition our physical education programs are already in,” Borio said.

Last year at this time, the district voted to issue 157 layoff notices, including 39 in physical education. Five PE teachers eventually were laid off, but all were offered substitute teaching positions before the fall semester started in September.

This year, the proposed layoffs come in anticipation of a $12 million budget deficit for the 1987-88 school year. The layoffs would result in a savings of $1.5 million, according to district officials.

Borio, for one, is not convinced that layoffs will erase the district’s budget deficit.

“Staff reduction as a solution to a budgetary problem is not the answer,” Borio said. “It hasn’t solved it yet, and it won’t solve it. The district is just digging itself a deeper hole.

“In athletics, if you have a game plan that doesn’t work, you change game plans. The district hasn’t done that.”