South Bay education employees who work with some of the most vulnerable students were bracing for layoffs Thursday.
The Santa Clara County Office of Education was expected to talk with employees Thursday and Friday about looming cuts.
The county office of education provides critical services, including the Head Start program for at-risk students, preschools, and migrant education.
Maria Corchado’s son went through Head Start 33 years ago. Now, she’s a family advocate for the program. But she and many of her coworkers recently received an email from the interim county superintendent, saying they’ll know by Thursday or Friday if their jobs are going away.
"Not knowing if you're going to have a job or not, that is a feeling that nobody should have," Corchado said.
The agency listed three reasons for layoffs: declining enrollment, organizational restructuring, and anticipating a reduction or outright loss of Head Start and preschool program funds due to the Trump administration’s new funding policies.
For those doing the work, the reasons matter less than the fact that they may soon not have a paycheck.
"I haven’t received my letter yet," Corchado said. "I know that it's coming. It's super, super worrisome because with inflation and the rise, we have a mortgage that we have to pay, we have a car note that we have to pay."
When NBC Bay Area asked the county office of education for further comment on the layoffs, they referred us to their staff letter and a news release in which they called the pending layoffs unfortunate but necessary.
Workers also suggested another possible reason for the cuts: a federal investigation into mismanagement of Head Start program funding.
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