Santa Ana Unified trustees approve 262 layoffs, including teachers and counselors

After months of special meetings, negotiations and hearings, the Santa Ana Unified School District Board of Trustees voted to shed 262 jobs amid declining enrollment and a $154-million budget deficit.

Trustees approved the mass layoffs on Monday during a special school board meeting.

Sonta Garner-Marcelo, president of the Santa Ana Educators Assn., asked the board to rescind the layoffs and argued that the district has $70 million in unrestricted funds it could use to save jobs.

“These layoffs are more than just numbers,” she said. “They are our colleagues, friends and essential school community members. Their loss will directly impact our students, education, safety and future.”

A majority of trustees described the mass layoffs, which were first discussed in November, as a difficult but necessary move, one that they worked collaboratively to mitigate.

Trustee Katelyn Brazer Aceves choked up with emotion during her prepared remarks on the layoffs.

“It is my ethical obligation to ensure that we maintain a positive budget,” she said, fighting back tears, “so that we can continue to provide a full, robust and competitive scope of services to our students as well as pay our employees on time.”

Like other school districts across the county and state, Santa Ana Unified faces declining enrollment, which is tied to funding.

Last year, Anaheim Union High School District trustees approved a plan to lay off more than 100 teachers amid plummeting enrollment before scrapping it in favor of making alternative cuts to its budget.

A presentation by Santa Ana Unified’s chief business official charted an expected 7% drop in the district’s enrollment within the next two school years.

The district released a statement on Tuesday that noted enrollment has already receded 28% over the past decade.

Additionally, $400 million in pandemic relief funds that created a temporary surplus are drying up.

“The end of temporary federal and state relief grants has left us navigating a significant funding shortfall,” Supt. Jerry Almendarez said in a statement. “Since the onset of the pandemic, these one-time funds enabled us to achieve an unprecedented counselor-to-student ratio and to expand mental health services.”

Educators and community members rallying against layoffs during a January Santa Ana Unified school board meeting.

(James Carbone)

At Monday’s meeting, Brazer Aceves said that the number of school counselors noticed for layoffs dropped from 90 to 39, which will allow the district to maintain a ratio of 315 students for every counselor.

Trustees also tried to allay concerns that teacher layoffs would translate into overcrowded classrooms.

The district acknowledged that its elementary school class sizes are expected to grow, but will still be below the 31 student threshold allowable under its contract with the teachers’ union.

Brenda Lebsack, a trustee and Santa Ana Unified teacher, was the sole dissenting vote against the mass layoffs.

“In spite of a pattern of declining enrollment for at least 15 years, the board still increased counselors and teachers,” she said. “The board knew the COVID relief funds were not ongoing. The decision to increase positions was obviously unsustainable. Three board members on this board currently made that decision — and we all make mistakes and miscalculations — but this is just one of many.”

Lebsack blasted progressive board members for getting entangled in a lawsuit with Jewish advocacy groups over ethnic studies classes and for passing gender identity policies that have led parents to “vote with their feet” in pulling children out of the district.

Board President Hector Bustos said that the layoffs reflected a difficult reality.

“We are no longer a school district of over 50,000 students,” he said. “We are a school district of 34,000 students. We are no longer the second largest school district in Orange County. We are now the fourth [largest].”

Before Bustos closed his remarks, he cautioned people against being “fooled” by Lebsack’s “no” vote.

“She will try to convince you that her vote was in defense of educators,” he said. “But her record, her words, her actions and her ideology tell a very different story. This is someone who has consistently opposed our unions, who has aligned herself with anti-public education interests, and who has repeatedly championed charter expansion at the expense of our public schools.”

Lebsack took offense to Bustos’ comments stretching longer than an allotted five minutes.

“She’s not here for solutions, she’s here for spectacle,” Bustos responded.

At the end of the special school board meeting, a 4-1 vote approved the mass layoffs.