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OUSD cuts 16 temporary teachers
By: STACY BRANDT - Staff Writer
District says governor's budget proposal played role | ∞
OCEANSIDE -- Reacting to a grim budget proposal from the governor's office, Oceanside Unified School District administrators have decided cut 16 temporary teachers after next week and stop hiring any new nonessential employees, officials said Monday.
The district is "trying to take small steps now to try to alleviate what could be bigger steps further on in the year," said Oceanside Unified spokesman Steve Lombard.
Although the 16 elementary and middle school educators who must go make up only a fraction of the district's 1,000 teachers, losing them will have an effect on some classrooms, said David Lee, president of the district's teachers union.
"It will affect the students in the classroom directly, because they will be having different teachers the rest of the year," Lee said.
Some teachers will also be shuffled around to replace those leaving when the semester ends on Jan. 24, officials said.
But that doesn't mean classrooms will be crowded, officials said. All classes in the district will still be the appropriate size, said Luis Ibarra, associate superintendent in charge of human resources.
"We're overstaffed right now," he said. "The majority of the district will not see an impact."
The temporary teachers are under contract with the district for the whole school year. However, under the contract, the district can let them go within the first three-quarters of the school year, Ibarra said.
Lee said the union, the Oceanside Teachers Association, will have lawyers look at the contract to see if anything can be done to help the 16 temporary teachers.
"We are very saddened by this turn of events because the teachers were given a year-long contract and they were promised the positions for a year," Lee said. "This came as a real surprise to all of these teachers."
The 16 teachers will be let go because they were the last ones hired, officials said. District officials hired them in September and October because more students showed up this year than administrators had expected.
However, some campuses -- including, Chavez and Jefferson middle schools -- had fewer students enroll than administrators anticipated, Ibarra said.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced last week that there are expected to be some drastic cuts in education funding this year as part of his annual budget proposal.
"Once his proposal went out, we knew right away we needed to take action," said Robyn Phillips, assistant superintendent in charge of business services. "We knew it was going to be bad, but it was worse than we anticipated."
It's still unclear if any future cuts will be necessary and where the district could find the money, she said.
Lee said many teachers would prefer district officials look at ways to make administrative cuts rather than focusing on the classroom.
"In the past when there's been a kind of crunch like this, the kind of cuts they've made have been administrative cuts," he said. "Have they taken a look at doing the same kind of things to make cuts so they don't have to affect the classroom?"
-- Contact staff writer Stacy Brandt at (760) 901-4009 or sbrandt@nctimes.com.
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Get rid of the real Problem! wrote on Jan 15, 2008 6:26 AM:Get rid of administrators, First! They do nothing and help no one.
Agree wrote on Jan 15, 2008 8:00 AM:Get rid of the fat at the top! How many superintendents does a district need that make well over 200k.
Alg wrote on Jan 15, 2008 9:34 AM:Thanks to the Governor and the Legislature. They created this mess.
I say cut the legislature's budget by 50% and the Executive Branch of government (Governor, Lt. Governor, etc.) by 50%. We don't need Proposition 93, we need a part-time legislaure. For all the money that is spent on our elected officials and the time they spend campaigning, we get very little return.
Barking up wrong tree wrote on Jan 15, 2008 10:04 AM:The district HAS cut administrative district positions and supplies. Supes and district employees ARE needed; follow them around for 1 day; they do not laze off. They also work more than 180 days that teachers work. Now, GOOD teachers should NOT be let go; why don't we have merit system instead of purely seniority? Cut the 'fat' by letting the mediocre (at best) teachers go - they do NOTHING for our children, except demoralize them. Too bad everything is run by unions instead of rational decision making backed by MERIT! I could care less if my children have 'senior' teachers; I care that they have competent, dedicated inspiring, loving, challenging professionals Don't you? In fact, one being let go is a 1st year young teacher who is definitely 'teacher of the year' material. Never has one of our children had such an awesome teacher. Shame shame shame.
Escondido Reader wrote on Jan 15, 2008 2:47 PM:One thing that high schools spend a huge amount of money on but that benefits only a few students is football (and other) teams. Schools should dump the hard core athletics and just have mandatory PE. The NFL and other pro leagues can provide funding for teen football clubs--it isn't the job of our schools to produce football players.
To barking up wrong tree wrote on Jan 15, 2008 11:12 PM:You aren't in education and it is obvious. You claim that "Supes" are busy...yeah, OK so are the teachers and support staff that work in the schools with our children! Without them, the "Supes" wouldn't have a job! (If you think that a "Supe" deserves 1/4 million dollars a year, then I would love to hear how much you would pay your precious "awesome" first year teacher.)
As for the seniority among teachers, the first teacher a child has, is their parent...ENOUGH SAID! As an educator I have seen many parents who have "parent of the year" potential, and many who shouldn't be parents. When you have a class of 20+ you do the best you can EVERY DAY! Maybe you haven't seen the best a teacher had to offer; but we all have bad days. (I am sure many parents have had a bad day; teachers have off days too.) We teach your children that you can make mistakes, and they are OK. As a parent and teacher you can teach them how to correct their mistakes. You can't blame a teacher who has gone through hoops to become an educator. Education isn't stickers, songs, and painting anymore; education has become a business of passing tests to reach your school site's goals on the API and AYP. New sanctions by both State and Federal governments have made teaching a cat and mouse game. Your precious first year teacher as well as many other hard working second and almost tenured teachers are also on the cut list. These teachers, in their own right are "awesome" and have "teacher of the year material". These people are willing to go into the over-crowded, under paid, and under staffed classrooms of California. Whether they are a first year or 20 year teachers a merit system is an insult. Just because a student doesn't ask questions, understand a lesson, or blanks out during a state test, becomes the fault of the teacher?! No, your suggestion of merit system will add to the cat and mouse game that is already within many schools in California. Since you are outspoken focus your passion for improving education not for your child but for all the children in your community.
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