33 Laguna Teachers, 2 Counselors Face Layoff

The financially strapped Laguna Beach Unified School District went about the grim business of handing out layoff notices to 33 teachers and two school counselors Wednesday, one day after notifying district administrators that some of their jobs also might be changed or eliminated.

Struggling with $1-million budget deficit, the district also produced a list of prized “enrichment classes” that might get the ax, including programs for students who need help with reading or have problems such as attention deficit disorder. Also on the hit list were art, music and computer technology classes for middle school students.

“All our kids are computer literate by the eighth grade,” Supt. Paul M. Possemato said Wednesday. “That’s gone.”

After a two-hour public hearing Tuesday night followed by a closed session, the school board emerged about 12:30 a.m. with decisions regarding layoffs, program cuts and increased classroom sizes, all effective in September. Possemato said the number of students per classroom will jump from 26 to about 30.

Jeff Nelsen, president of the Laguna Beach Unified Faculty Assn., said the teachers are stunned.

“My sense is that it’s still beginning to sink in,” he said. “The realities of what do I do, where do I go, is there a chance I can stay, why me?”

Possemato met with district teachers on Wednesday and plans to meet with administrators, clerical workers, instructional aides and maintenance workers today to announce that some of them might lose their jobs or that their duties might shift. For example, an assistant principal could be put to work as a teacher, he said.

“That’s all part of a major effort in a number of areas to deal with ways to reduce cost considering the financial flow has just deteriorated,” he said. “I’ll say clearly, the cuts will be significant because of the imbalance in our income.”

Still, district leaders stress that not all 35 teachers who get notices will necessarily be laid off, and that between now and the next school year the district could find a way to save some of the threatened programs. State law requires that any teacher who might be laid off be notified in advance. Possemato estimated that the real number of layoffs might be closer to 24.

The district has already cut $390,000 from its current budget, and this year began charging a school bus fee.

News of the latest round of cuts has shocked the community, where many parents are involved with the district’s four schools.

But if parents are worried, some said they are also already pulling together to meet the current need.

“There are ways parents and the community can fund these programs, which in some cases we already do,” said Debbie Pickett, PTA president at Top of the World Elementary School. “I don’t know if they’ll save the day, but they’ll certainly pitch in, because that’s what they do. That’s our MO.”

Keiko Beatie, PTA president at Thurston Middle School, agreed that many programs probably will be saved.

“This is no big deal. We can get over this, and our kids can still have a quality education,” Beatie said. “The very sad thing is there will not be some new, wonderfully gifted [and] exciting teachers. . . . That’s a big disappointment to a lot of people.”

One parent said many parents wish tenured teachers should take pay cuts so that fewer instructors would have to be laid off.

Over the next few months, Laguna Beach school officials will conduct a series of meetings to decide more precisely which cuts will be made.

Despite the battering the community has taken with the 1993 fire, floods, the county bankruptcy and now a financial crisis for its schools, Beatie held fast to her sense of humor on Wednesday.

“We haven’t had locusts yet,” Beatie said. “But if the locusts come, I’m definitely out of here.”