MISSION VIEJO : School Board Moves Toward Layoffs

The Saddleback Valley Unified School District took a step toward layoffs this week when the Board of Education ordered administrators to draw up a list of non-teaching employees who could be terminated.

The move came minutes after board members unanimously approved a 6.75% raise for these same employees and a pay raise for themselves. The five board members will now receive $750 a month instead of $400.

The layoffs--which Supt. Peter A. Hartman estimates could number 20--comes in the wake of Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposal to cut $2 billion from the state education budget. If passed by the Legislature, that cut would cost the district between $400,000 and $1 million, administrators said. The district has 600 non-teaching employees and an annual budget of $100 million.

Board member Dorie J. Gilbert blasted the state government, saying it was forcing school boards to do the “dirty work” rather than make cuts in programs. “Hopefully, the state will realize that education is important to this community, this county, this state and this country and fund us at an appropriate level,” Gilbert said. “I get the feeling sometimes that the funding for education is only one step above funding for trash collection.”

The pay raise for the non-teaching employees will cost the district $800,000 this year, while the board raise will cost it $21,000, administrators said.

The layoff list will be based on both seniority and job classifications, administrators said.

For example, if the district decides to cut two secretaries and three custodians, the workers with the least seniority in each category would be laid off.

Hartman also said that as many as five of the district’s 1,100 teachers could be laid off if cuts are made, but no proposal related to that has been made to the board. By state law, any teachers who will not be rehired for next year will have to be notified by March 15.

This would be the district’s third layoff in 10 years. In 1982-83, 143 employees lost their jobs when then-Gov. George Deukmejian slashed the state education budget. In 1984, five physical education teachers were fired when the district eliminated part of that program.

The California School Employees Assn., the non-teaching employees union, said it would not fight a layoff. Its members recently approved unanimously the pay-raise package that included a 2% permanent salary increase and a 3% temporary increase, as well as a bonus of 1.75% of their annual salary.

The board pay raise was the second in the district’s 17-year history. Members of most other local school boards already receive $750 a month.