Hundreds of educators in the San Francisco Unified School District have received preliminary layoff notices, and the school board on Tuesday evening is scheduled to vote on just how wide the job cuts will be.
About 400 district employees received the notices as the district hopes reduce annual spending by $125 million through workforce reduction.
A district presentation outlined six categories of staff members and the number of positions that could potentially be cut. They include:
- 151 credentialed UESF (United Educators of San Francisco)
- 37 classified UESF
- 20 administrators UASF (United Administrators of San Francisco)
- 51 unrepresented management
- 30 SEIU (Service Employees International Union)
- 12 unrepresented
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District staff did note in its presentation that the numbers could potentially decrease but will not increase.
View the 5 p.m. school board meeting via Zoom.
The district released the following statement Tuesday:
Local
"Tonight the SF Board of Education will be voting on the number of staff positions that will receive preliminary layoffs. Per the California Education Code, the district is required to send out notices of layoff on or before March 15, 2022 for certain employee groups, including teachers. A layoff notice does not mean that a layoff will occur. Final notice of teacher layoffs or administrative reassignments must be given by May 15 for teachers and June 30 for administrative reassignments.
"SFUSD is experiencing a structural deficit –– even before the pandemic the district’s expenditures exceeded its revenue. Contributing factors include decreased student enrollment, which deepens the deficit due to revenue loss; rising costs associated with teacher/staff pensions; expanded services; and special education services, among other expenses.
"SFUSD has sought to address the budget forecast to soften the impact on schools, including making reductions to Central administration in the last few years and exploring additional funding sources. However, current projections show estimated deficits of at least $125M for the districts’ next fiscal year, 2022-23.
"There may be staff positions filled that the district will no longer be able to afford under its budget-balancing plan. We recognize that this can be stressful and feel uncertain. While every effort will be made to sustain our existing workforce, in some cases there may not be an appropriate placement for every employee whose job is impacted. Central support service budgets have and will continue to absorb a greater percentage of the cuts than school site budgets."
