Three School Districts Deliver Pink Slips to Teachers, Others : Budgets: Layoffs loom for 2 in Ocean View Elementary, 42 in Westminister Elementary, 79 in Orange Unified. Other districts escape wielding ax.

Despite severe school-funding problems, only three of Orange County’s 28 school districts are laying off teachers or other classroom workers this year.

The three districts giving pink slips are Ocean View Elementary, headquartered in Huntington Beach, with two layoffs; Westminster Elementary, 42, and Orange Unified, with up to 79. However, officials at the three districts said some of those jobs may be saved if funding improves between now and July 1.

Some districts, such as Irvine Unified and Garden Grove Unified, gave preliminary layoff notices earlier this year but ended up not having to ax any employees by the state’s legal deadline Saturday.

Most districts slashed their budgets in other ways to prevent layoffs. But officials in the three districts laying employees off said they are in such a financial bind that they had no other option.

Orange Unified officials noted that the district, which has about 26,000 students, is facing a $2.5-million deficit.

“It’s very frustrating,” said Joyce Capelle, Orange Unified’s chief fiscal officer. “Year after year we keep having to make budget cuts. With the $2.5 million we’re cutting this year, it will total $14 million that our district has had to cut back in the past three years. And there is no easy way to make cuts. We’ve been having to cut into school programs for many years now.”

Of the 79 potential layoffs in Orange Unified, 40 are teachers and the rest are counselors and other types of specialists. In Westminster Elementary School District, which faces a $1.7-million shortfall, 34 teachers and eight other specialists are targeted for layoff. Officials said lack of adequate state funding is the culprit.

“The state is balancing its budget on the backs of the schoolchildren,” charged Westminster school board member Ron Morgan.

Westminster Supt. Gail Wickstrom added: “This is really a crisis to us. Not one of our teachers should ever have been put through this, and it’s a crime we’re being forced to lose all this great talent and expertise. Needless to say, we’re not happy with the state.”

In Ocean View Elementary School District, two music teachers are being laid off as the district faces a $1-million cutback. Officials said the move saddens and angers them. The anger, they said, is because they believe state funding is neither adequate nor predictable year by year.

“I don’t think the public really understands what has happened to California education,” said Ocean View Assistant Supt. Cameron McCune. “School funding in California has declined so much that the education most adults received when they were young is now no longer available to their children.”

In Garden Grove Unified, Assistant Supt. Kenneth Calkins said Friday that eleventh-hour contract negotiations saved eight counseling positions targeted for layoffs. “Because of an agreement reached with the union that represents the counselors, we’re now not going to have to lay off anyone,” Calkins said.

Calkins said the union agreed to have its membership pay a bigger share of the cost of fringe benefits. The savings will permit the district to forgo layoffs, he said.

Irvine Unified similarly escaped layoffs as a result of favorable contract negotiations with unions representing the school system’s workers.

Faced with a $2-million budget shortfall, Irvine Unified officials early this year said the district would have to lay off about 100 school workers. But in April, the teachers’ union agreed to a reduction in benefits and bonuses in order to prevent any layoffs.

Teachers, administrators and all other school workers in Orange Unified last year voluntarily took 2.59% pay cuts to try and help that deficit-plagued district. But despite the cuts, red ink continues to flow in Orange Unified.

“The unions (in Orange Unified) acted in the best interest of the kids last year by taking the pay cuts, but we’re not asking them to do that again this year,” said Capelle. She said that the district in March sent out 97 preliminary layoff notices to teachers and some other workers, including counselors and library specialists.

“Since then, we’ve had 18 people retire, and since we won’t be filling those positions, that means we now have a total of 79 positions that may be laid off,” Capelle said.

An administrative law judge has given Orange Unified until June 1 to make its layoffs final. Capelle said that in the meantime, she and other district officials are hoping that state budget figures will be more encouraging.

“If the state budget situation improves, we could have fewer reductions” in staff, Capelle said.

Officials in many Orange County school districts criticized the way the state budget slowly evolves.

By law, the state is supposed to adopt a new budget by July 1 each year--the same deadline faced by school districts. But the Legislature and governor have seldom made that deadline for the state budget. As a result, school districts have to guess what their funding will be from the state and then map their budget from that rough estimate.

The districts’ budget problem is compounded by other state laws that put tight restrictions on laying off teachers. In order to lay off teachers, a district must give preliminary notices to them by March 15 and final notices by May 15. But by May 15 each year, district officials point out, they still have few clues about what funding they will get from the state.

Teachers and administrators alike in Orange County have said California’s school funding and budget laws need overhaul.

“I think the state of California better get its act together,” said Judy Smith, president of the Fullerton Elementary Teacher’s Assn.

Three of Orange County’s 28 school districts are proposing teacher and other staff layoffs this year because of budget problems. The layoffs may be avoided if more state funding is received by July 1.

Current School district Layoffs teachers Students Ocean View Elementary 2 385 8,738 Orange Unified 79 1,200 26,000 Westminster Elementary 42 380 8,500

Source: Individual school districts