HUNTINGTON BEACH : Board Rejects Plea to Cancel Layoffs

A last-ditch plea by a group of employees this week failed to dissuade the Huntington Beach Union High School District board from eliminating 38 non-teaching positions.

The layoffs are part of $2.6 million in budget cuts approved by the trustees last month. An additional resolution to dismiss employees was approved 4 to 1 by the board Tuesday. Among the employees who will lose their jobs as a result of the cuts are science lab technicians, a bilingual teacher assistant, special education aides, physical education equipment attendants and clerical workers.

Board members said they could not preserve those jobs without harming vital educational programs and services.

Protesting employees acknowledged that some cuts were unavoidable but argued that trustees should not have eliminated more positions than had been recommended by Supt. Lawrence Kemper. Rather than lay off school nurses and psychologists, as Kemper had advised, the board chose to lay off additional employees in other classifications.

Leaders of California School Employees Assn. Chapter 157 told the board they believe school psychologists should have been targeted before other workers were removed. Addie Collier, president of the union representing 465 custodians, clerical workers, bus drivers and other non-teaching employees, said she considers school psychologists “luxuries” that the district cannot afford.

“Personally, I believe that we’re either running a mental health care program or an educational program,” Collier said Thursday. “It has to be one of the two, and there has to be a decision made.”

Trustees, however, have contended that on-campus psychologists are vital because they help students deal with such things as drug abuse and family problems. Dozens of parents and students at previous board meetings assailed Kemper for proposing that three psychologists be cut from the district’s seven high schools.

The board argued further that psychological services not only fill student needs but keep students in school--which translates into more state money, since schools are funded based on student attendance. Consequently, psychologists “pay for themselves,” Trustee Michael Simons said recently.

Collier challenged that contention, saying the elimination of some workers, such as science lab assistants and physical education attendants, may jeopardize the safety of students.

The laid-off employees will receive notices by the end of this month and their jobs will be terminated July 1.