PORT HUENEME : Teaching Assistants Face Possible Layoffs

Teaching assistants at the Port Hueneme school district have been informed that they could be facing layoffs next year because of budget cuts.

School district administrators notified union representatives at a closed meeting on Thursday that the school board would consider a plan to lay off 11 teaching assistants who work with disadvantaged children in three schools.

The possibility of layoffs is due to reductions in federal money that pays for extra teaching assistants and classroom materials in areas with a high percentage of families on welfare, said Jeffrey Baarstad, a district spokesman.

Because of the increasing demand for funds in California, there is less money for area schools that qualify for the aid, Baarstad said. The Port Hueneme district had about $300,000 cut from its allotment, he said. The district’s allotment is more than $1 million a year.

The layoffs would eliminate the district’s teaching assistants who are paid with the federal money.

Other school districts in the county receiving the federal money also have had to cope with reductions in funds, said Carol Krabill, president of the Hueneme chapter of the California Schools Employees Assn.

Krabill noted that while both the Rio and Ocean View school districts have had cuts, neither has made layoffs.

“It’s a matter of priorities,” Krabill said. “They want to use the money for more supplies and revamp the program. They don’t want to spend it on people.”