The Abridged version:<\/p>\n
After authorizing hundreds of pink slips earlier this month, the Sacramento City Unified school board took up another round Thursday.<\/p>\n
About 100 employees contested their potential terminations in public hearings. An administrative judge advised district officials not to go through with this batch of layoffs, but trustees were not required to take this recommendation.<\/p>\n
Despite the planned layoffs and other aggressive budget cuts, state experts have warned that Sacramento City Unified is barreling toward needing a rescue from the state.<\/p>\n
The list of pink slip recipients at Sacramento City Unified School District grew this week.<\/p>\n
School board members approved about 100 additional terminations \u2014 against a judge\u2019s recommendation \u2014 on top of more than 500 layoff notices trustees authorized earlier this month.<\/p>\n
The staff cuts come as district leaders race to gain control of a $170 million budget deficit and come up with enough savings to dodge state intervention.<\/p>\n
The layoffs on the table at Thursday\u2019s school board meeting concerned a fraction of employees who appealed their potential termination.<\/p>\n
Trustees have said previously they expect to rescind some of the notices before the end of June, but they do not know yet how many jobs can be saved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a hard decision,\u201d said board President Tara Jeane. \u201cAnd I\u2019m really tired of having to make decisions that are harder than they should be.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018We\u2019re real\u2019<\/p>\n
Several of the affected employees appeared before the board to plead for their position. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want you guys to remember that we are individuals with families, hopes, dreams, aspirations, fears and feelings,\u201d Steve Bruno, a database administrator whose position was cut, told the board. \u201cWe\u2019re real, and we deserve to be acknowledged as such and treated with dignity and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hundreds of positions on the chopping block consisted heavily of administrators and non-teaching staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cBehind every single layoff notice is a person,\u201d said Karla Faucett, president of the district\u2019s Service Employees International Union chapter.<\/p>\n
Judge recommends scrapping layoffs<\/p>\n
Most school district employees who receive a preliminary layoff notice are able to request a public hearing in front of an administrative law judge. Staff may claim there is not a valid reason to cut their jobs or that the district did not follow proper procedure in doling out the layoffs.<\/p>\n
Judge Patrice De Guzman Huber determined the latter was the case for the roughly 100 employees who requested a review of their case.<\/p>\n
She recommended the district rescind these pending layoffs.<\/p>\n
However, California education code leaves the ultimate decision up to the school board. Lawyers for the district advised trustees not to heed De Guzman Huber, saying they believe she had erred in her judgement.<\/p>\n
The board approved the layoffs 4-2. <\/p>\n
Final doesn\u2019t mean final<\/p>\n
Despite giving the human resources department the OK to send out final notices, board members said their decision was not necessarily the final step.<\/p>\n
Trustees can still pull back a number of pink slips before June 30. <\/p>\n
But their ability to do so may be severely limited, given tight financial constraints. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor every single position that I can 100% be convinced (to save),\u201d said Trustee Taylor Kayatta, \u201cthen what else are we going to cut in place of that? That\u2019s someone else who can convince me that this position is essential and critical for the district.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cuts at the top<\/p>\n
Since early in the budget crisis last fall, board members have called for an overhaul at the top. <\/p>\n
On Thursday, staff delivered a plan to cut roughly 1 in 6 employees from the district\u2019s central office. The proposal also includes pay cuts for a handful of positions.<\/p>\n
The reductions target higher up administrators, at the board\u2019s direction, according to Erin Findley, chief academic officer. For example, the superintendent\u2019s cabinet will shrink from six members to four.<\/p>\n
The shake up is expected to save about $26.6 million. <\/p>\n
But Findley cautioned that with these cuts, the district will have to adjust to \u201cdoing less with less.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no way to reduce our footprint by 150 positions in the central office without a very real impact,\u201d Findley said. \u201cResponse times will inherently be slower, and there will be moments where people feel their needs aren\u2019t being met as quickly as in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
Savannah Kuchar\u00a0is a reporter covering education. She came to Sacramento to be a part of the Abridged team and contribute to a crucial local news source.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Abridged version: After authorizing hundreds of pink slips earlier this month, the Sacramento City Unified school board…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-327664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}