SAN DIEGO – The San Diego Unified School Board voted 3 to 2 Tuesday, May 13th, to lay off 617 teachers. According to District spokesperson District, Jack Brandais, John De Beck voted with the majority, whereas Board members Sheila Jackson and Luis Acle voted against the cuts.The 617 teachers slated to be laid off will not be offered contracts in the fall, but can finish out the school year, according to Brandais.
The vote took place before a packed auditorium at the District headquarters on Normal Street. But it was anything but normal, when the Board made its decision to lay off the teachers, claiming there was no alternative in order to balance its budget.
Brandais made the claim that,”There’s approximately 14,000 or 15,000 teachers around the state that have received layoff notices.”
Camille Zombro, of the San Diego Teachers’ Union continues to say there are alternatives to layoffs, such as a hiring freeze, cutting the administration, dipping into the reserves. Other large school districts have managed to survive and balance their budgets without massive lay offs. [For more news,go here to msnbc local.]
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these ed cut-backs make me want to launch a recall effort against the terminator.
Sign me up Anon.
Interesting how they couldn’t find any administrative positions that could be cut isn’t it? In fact the new superintendent is creating 5 or 6 new administrative jobs to help him, while he/they cut teachers, aides, and other support positions. Wonder why the local media’s not doing some research and reporting on that?