Bishop - Pink slips go out at area schools

California’s state budget deficit is reaching local schools as programs are reduced and teachers’ jobs are placed in jeopardy.
In Bishop alone, 12 educators have been given pink slips, and four teachers are retiring and may not be replaced.
But these are preliminary layoff notices, part of the state’s mandated teacher notification process. Teachers are to be notified of possibly losing their job by March 15, even though schools don’t finalize a budget until June as they wait for the state to finalize a budget.
There’s also declining enrollment, some of it directly related to the local sluggish economy. The Employment Development Department is reporting a 9.5 percent unemployment rate for Inyo County and there are few jobs in the “Help Wanted“ section.

Maggie Kingsbury, Bishop Union High School superintendent, said earlier this week that preliminary layoff notices were given to six teachers, and four are set to retire. Layoffs are based on seniority, Kingsbury explained, so the most recently hired are the first to go.

Bishop Union High School is feeling the budget crunch as six teachers have been given preliminary layoff notices and programs are being reduced. Tough economic times are also being blamed for a drop in enrollment as families move to find work. Photo by Mike Bodine

Not all of the notices are directly related to the state budget, but the weak economy in general is definitely to blame. She said she attributes some of the layoffs to declining enrollment of approximately 70 less students, despite a large incoming class of around 185 freshmen for 2009-10.
Bishop Elementary School District Superintendent Barry Simpson said that the district has experienced a “small bump” in enrollment of about 15 students at the middle school level, but there will be a large eighth-grade graduating class.
To add to the enrollment uncertainty, Simpson said he knows of many parents who are having to travel out of town for work. “I don’t know how many of them want to keep traveling out of town and be away from their families.”
While there are some teachers retiring, there are many long-time teachers who aren’t ready to retire.
Simpson said that there are no retirements planned for the three-campus district. “It makes it difficult, as we have to make a few more layoff notices, but in this economy people aren’t ready or don’t want to retire yet.”
Simpson reported handing out six pink slips to certified staff. “These are difficult times and we never want to do this, and we are hoping to bring some back.”
Inyo County Superintendent of Schools Terry McAteer said he’s been able to dip into reserves to limit layoffs as much as possible and reported “cutting from the top down” with $250,000 in administrative cuts.
Cuts are being made to other areas, such as remedial-level classes, which are being bumped from the schedule in some cases to make room for state-mandated college-track classes.
One popular program, and one that was passionately defended at the last BUHS Board of Trustees special budget meeting, is the AVID program, cut from three sections to one, according to Kingsbury.
The AVID program, or Advancement Via Individual Determination, is an academic support program that prepares students for college eligibility and success.
Kingsbury said the district, which includes Palisades Glacier High in Big Pine and, on July 1, the Keith Bright School for juvenile defenders in Independence, is “in a holding pattern, waiting to see what happens at the state level.”
“It’s not very pleasant (to give layoff notices) especially in a small district, playing with people’s lives and jobs – but we just have to wait and see,” Kingsbury said.
“We hope to rehire,” McAteer said, “But with the state budget, the chances are slim to none.”
School superintendents are hoping, but not hopeful about the May 19 Special Election when California voters will be deciding whether to extend a tax increase that legislators passed in the last heated budget decisions. Evidently some voters are not very happy with the tax hikes, as recall efforts are being pursued for every state Republican legislator that voted for those increases.
Two propositions in particular will directly affect California schools. Prop 1A, or Budget Stabilization Fund, would require the state to direct 3 percent of revenues to a rainy day fund, increasing the size of that reserve from 5 to 12.5 percent of the budget. The additional revenue would come from extending the sales tax increase of 1 percent for two additional years, as well as extending vehicle license fee increases. Part of the money would go toward repaying the $9 billion owed to public schools. If 1A fails there is no mechanism in place to return the funds, according to the California Teachers Association.
The mechanism to return the funding to schools is Prop 1B, the Protect Education Funding proposition. If passed, the repayments would begin in 2011.
McAteer explained that the measures, particularly Prop 1C that borrows from future lottery revenues to secure future school funding, are “not good public policy. It might be good for students, but not for tax payers.”
He said that, as he expects the propositions not to pass, and state revenues to decline, there will be another massive deficit for legislators to contend with in June that will probably lead to more cuts.
Simpson said that he was “very concerned about the May 19 election, but we don’t expect it to pass.
“We’re bracing for the worst,” Simpson concluded, describing the financial situation at the state level as “a mess.”