School Board Set To Vote on 55 Proposed Layoffs

The Pasadena Unified School District school board on Thursday night was scheduled to consider eliminating 55 full-time positions, including some 44 teachers and four principals, for the 2020-2021 school year.

The proposed layoffs are largely — but not exclusively — fallout from the school closures announced by the board in the fall.

In September, the board, wrestling with dire financial struggles and declining enrollment, announced the closures of the Franklin, Jefferson and Roosevelt elementary schools for the next school year.

Then in October, the school board announced the upcoming closure of Wilson Middle School.

The principals of those schools were among the 55 positions on the chopping block at Thursday night’s meeting.

Also facing the ax were 30 full-time elementary and middle-school teachers and an array of specialty-teaching positions from English, science, math and physical education.

The Education Code requires teachers be notified March 15 that they could be laid off the following school year.

In addition, various part-time positions were facing elimination, including an elementary-school Mandarin language teacher, a middle-school art teacher, a middle-school librarian, a high-school Mandarin language teacher, and a high-school counselor, among others.

Reportedly, the school district was facing a $4 million shortfall in its 2019-2020 budget when it announced the upcoming school closures. The L.A. County Office of Education had threatened to take over the Pasadena schools unless the PUSD could address its budget woes.

The possible layoffs were among the action items set to be heard at Thursday night’s meeting. The public portion of the meeting was scheduled to start at 6 p.m. at the board’s offices at 351 South Hudson Ave.

Specifically, the action item regarding layoffs said:

* “The Pasadena Unified School District has determined that it shall be necessary to decrease the following programs and services of the District no later than the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year.”
* “It shall be necessary to terminate at the end of the 2019-2020 school year the employment of certain certificated employees of the District as a result of the reduction of programs and services.”
* “In determining the amount of service to be reduced, the Board has considered all assured attrition known at the time of this resolution.”