The Los Angeles school board — confronted with deficit spending and an internal forecast of insolvency in three years — narrowly voted to send out 3,200 notices of possible layoff, launching a process that is expected to result in as many as 650 layoffs, moves strongly opposed by labor groups as unnecessary and harmful to students.
Even at the lower number, the job losses would be significant in a school system that has largely avoided job cuts in recent years — and that began the current school year with a $5-billion reserve as part of an $18.8-billion budget. The board vote was 4-3.
Despite that large reserve, L.A. schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho said Tuesday the cuts are necessary because the district is spending more than it is taking in — and that the seemingly healthy reserve is expected to disappear within three years.
“Delaying actions would not solve the problem,” Carvalho said during the meeting. “In fact, kicking the can down the road would not eliminate reductions. Kicking the can down the road will actually magnify them.”
“At some point, we reached a breaking point. We are there.”
Carvalho emphasized that the cuts for the next academic year do not include classroom teachers and include no class-size increases. There also are no school closures in the current budget plan despite an enrollment decline from nearly 500,000 in 2018-19, just before the COVID-19 pandemic, to about 390,000 this year.
The layoff notices, approved by a 4-3 vote, target central and regional office staff, who were described as providing direct and important services to schools.
“This approach reflects a deliberate effort to shield students and front-line educators and support staff from the most severe impacts of this fiscal downturn,” Carvalho said. “The district is accepting additional measured risk — fiscal risk … for the sake of protecting people, positions, workforce members.”
The board report lists 657 “central office and centrally-funded position closures.” Among those jobs: 220 information technology support technicians, 33 parent education support assistants, 23 gardeners, five area bus supervisors, five stock clerks and three interpreters. Another 52 positions would have reduced hours and 22 positions would be paid at a lower rate.
Central and regional office employees with the least seniority are most at risk. Others at risk include administrators in non-school positions and teachers in non-school positions.
These cuts are projected to save $150 million next year, part of a broader “fiscal stabilization plan” that the nation’s second-largest school system has submitted to a county oversight agency.
Ultimately, the report states, about 1% of the district’s more than 83,000 employees are likely to lose a job or have their pay reduced.
One missing element was what would be left behind after the cuts. The 220 IT technicians lost represents more than half of that unit, said Max Arias, executive director of Local 99 of Service Employees International Union.
“Students need support,” Arias said. “Schools need support. What are you going to do? Subcontract? Because that’s the only thing left. The work needs to get done. That is completely unacceptable. Similarly, with gardeners, just because there’s less students doesn’t mean the grass is going to stop growing.”
Union leader Franny Parrish of the California School Employees Assn. said that “half of the mail-clerk division will be gone. Well now that gives a new meaning to snail mail — when you realize that only four people [were] left to sort the entire mail for all of LAUSD.”
How LAUSD got to this place
Board member Kelly Gonez reflected on the challenge to understand the financial situation.
“We have the governor proclaiming that we are at the highest-ever expenditures for public education, and yet we, here in Los Angeles Unified, are confronting this financial situation,” Gonez said.
Staff responded with examples of other districts making larger cutbacks, adding that annual increases in state tax revenues — and the approved state budget — have not kept pace with ongoing costs.
The problem, said Carvalho, has been substantially caused by the end of one-time COVID-relief aid and declining enrollment — drops not matched by a concurrently smaller workforce.
“During the pandemic, over 6,000 workforce members were hired. Those individuals were hired with one-time money, meaning, when those funds ended, those positions continue to exist,” Carvalho said.
Enrollment decline has been exacerbated by the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration-law enforcement.
“Enrollment has been declining for the better part of two-and-a-half decades,” Carvalho said. “It declined more aggressively during the pandemic years and then from last year to this year, a double of the expected, the projected, decline as a result of targeted federal immigration actions.”
Even with the cuts, he added: “We will still have a workforce that is larger than when the district had 40% more students than we have today.”
Gonez seemed to accept the staff’s explanation but voted against the cuts anyway. She was joined by Rocio Rivas and Karla Griego, who each said there had been insufficient analysis on the effect of the cuts and potential alternatives, such as cutting outside contracts.
Unions protest
A coalition of union leaders said the district’s numbers don’t add up.
“This district is not broke,” Arias said. “Absolutely it’s not broke. You manipulate. You have the figures you create.”
Union leaders have pointed out that district figures consistently show a deficit three years out, but that year after year the ending balance has remained enormous. The unions also have called attention to record state tax revenues — with the understanding that California law requires that about 40% of the state budget go to the public school system.
“Where are the December and January tax revenue updates in this presentation or in this report? Why are they not discussed?” said Maria Nichols, president of Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, which represents campus administrators and central office middle managers.
Arias also noted that his union members are typically the lowest paid in the district. His members include special education and teacher aides, cafeteria workers, custodians, gardeners and bus drivers.
“One in five of the class of our employees has been or is homeless. We are tired of seeing our peers go hungry,” Arias said.
Teachers union leader Cecily Myart-Cruz said her union remained allied with the others even though classroom teachers were not targeted in the cuts: “We stand together.”
The district expects to need about 750 fewer teachers next year but will rely on projected retirements, other departures and a hiring freeze for now.
Most district unions remain in negotiations with L.A. Unified. Members of United Teachers Los Angeles voted to give their union’s leaders the right to call a strike at their discretion.
The union is seeking an immediate 16% raise for new teachers, an across-the-board 3% raise in the contract’s second year and significant automatic pay hikes tied to years of experience and continued education. The district is offering 2.5% for the first year of a three-year contract; 2% the next, plus a 1% one-time bonus.
