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Schools

School District Approves Cutting 136 Full-time Equivalent Positions

Board members, teachers and parents, bemoaned the potential loss of programs and teachers.

Parents, teachers, and other people connected to the San Ramon Valley Unified School District packed a meeting room Tuesday night to weigh in on the school budget crisis, as the district board took more inevitable steps to prepare the way for program cuts and staff layoffs.

At the meeting, the board approved cutting 136 full-time equivalent positions for teachers and administrators with valid teaching credentials, including two administrators and two assistant principals.

"We can choose to do nothing," said board member Greg Marvel, "and the state will take us over—and do a poor job."
 
A parent cried, and the president of the board, Rachel Hurd, got teary-eyed speaking about the poor set of options the district faces because of the state budget cutbacks projected in the governor's preliminary. The district, which faces a $7 million shortfall because of the loss of state funding, is required to close that deficit. Because 87 percent of the district budget goes to staffing, cost-saving cuts would necessarily entail employee concessions such as furloughs and reductions in compensation or layoffs, primarily involving teachers.
 
Referring to the job losses teachers will potentially suffer, Hurd said that when layoff notices go out, which will occur by March 15, "It has nothing to do with performance, but I keep hearing that it feels like it does."
 
Because of the potential cuts, K-3 classes could grow to as many as 28 children. They are currently capped at 22. Classes in the district's middle and high schools could swell to as many as 30 students, whereas ninth grade math and English are now limited to an average of 22 per class.
 
One of the specific measures the board passed last night would allow some assistant principals to be reassigned or laid off, if  deemed necessary when the state budget is finalized this summer. Marvel said San Ramon Valley has one of the worst administrator-to-student ratios in the country. "We're near the bottom of the bottom," he said.
 
Parent and math tutor Anaite Letona, said she is working to protest the state's ongoing cuts to education with the district PTA.
 
"That's our job as California citizens," Letona said, "to say it's not okay anymore."

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