also see: LAUSD TEACHER LAYOFF HEARINGS TO COMMENCE: …the sad news is that this has become an annual event ... http://bit.ly/gRy57z
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez - KPCC | http://bit.ly/hH5Wyq
April 25, 2011 | Teachers unions are challenging school district layoff notices and at Los Angeles Unified, hearings began on Monday over the validity of more than half the district’s 5,000 teacher layoff notices.
In these hearings every teacher is a number. Vickie Waite began teaching for L.A. Unified 17 years ago.
“My employee number is 657, I’ve been working for the district as a substitute teacher, committed to full time work if there was any available, and yet I got no credit for those nine years of service as a substitute teacher,” she said.
Waite is one of more than 3,000 L.A. Unified teachers who say they shouldn’t have received layoff notices. Most argue that the district’s not factoring in their advanced degrees and other teaching assignments.
She’s seeking advice from Warren Fletcher, a campus union rep and the incoming president of United Teachers Los Angeles.
“What you’re doing is you’re taking the middle of the profession out,” said Fletcher. “You’re taking the people who really make the school run and you’re putting their jobs on the line, and that’s wrong.”
Union officials say the seniority system should remain the foundation of teachers’ contracts. Some beginning teachers disagree and point to cracks in that foundation. A legal settlement sets aside seniority-based layoffs at some low-performing schools.
The hearings will continue Mondays through Fridays for the next seven weeks. After that, an administrative law judge will issue a ruling that goes to L.A. Unified’s school board for approval.
LAUSD School Board Holds Layoff Hearings
LAUSD School Board Holds Layoff Hearings: MyFoxLA.com
Reporter:Phil Shuman Posted by: Tony Spearman / myFOXla.com | http://bit.ly/eZ3CCd
25 Apr 2011, 1:43 PM PDT -Los Angeles - Layoff hearings began today for thousands of Los Angeles Unified School District teachers facing the loss of their jobs at the end of the school year, with the union continuing to push for alternatives to cuts in the classroom.
About 5,000 layoff notices were sent to district employees in March as the LAUSD tries to cut into an estimated $408 million deficit for the coming school year. District officials have said the layoffs are a last-resort measure, and they were working to make cuts elsewhere to help save jobs.
But as teachers began appearing at hearings today before an administrative law judge -- to ensure the layoff notices were within district policy -- some said the layoffs would be devastating for schools.
LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy unveiled a proposal earlier this month that would provide a one-year budget fix and save the jobs of many of the employees targeted for layoff. The plan, however, would require employees and their unions to agree to 12 unpaid furlough days.
The furlough concept is still the subject of union negotiations. In the meantime, teachers' jobs are hanging in the balance -- along with the possibility of increased class sizes for students.
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