Possible Teacher Layoffs at Saddleback Unified Schools More Worrying Than Ever

Elizabeth Armstrong took a pay cut to become a high school English teacher after working in marketing and events management. Now, in her third year at Trabuco Hills High School, Armstrong has learned to live with a fact of life for new teachers: job uncertainty.

Like 65 other Saddleback Valley Unified teachers, on March 15, Armstrong received a notice—known as a "pink slip"—that she may soon be laid off from her job. It's the third year in a row that she's been told she may not have a job come September.

“It’s actually hard to describe what it feels like," said Armstrong, 35, who is also an assistant cross-country and track coach. "I went into it understanding that this is how education is right now. But that doesn’t make it any easier."

She says she has considered leaving teaching altogether. But for now, she wants to stay.

“Every year, I think about going back to the corporate world or applying to other districts,” said Armstrong, whose husband is unemployed after losing his job with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. “But I love teaching, and I love teaching here. At some point, if it gets really bad, I’m going to have to leave.”

By law, school districts are required to notify teachers who might lose their jobs in September by March 15. School districts typically plan for a worst-case scenario, then retain many of their pink-slipped teachers after a state budget is passed and they have a clearer picture of their finances.

But this year, as have yet to bear fruit, many teachers and parents in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District are getting increasingly anxious about what kind of budget cuts their schools might face.

District officials estimate that Saddleback Valley Unified will face an $8-million shortfall in 2012-13 if Brown’s tax extensions pass and a $28-million shortfall if they don’t.

In addition to the 66 certificated employees such as Armstrong who received pink slips, the district has notified 52 classified employees, such as library clerks and custodians, that their positions may be eliminated, said Margarett Lewis, assistant superintendent for personnel services.

Those totals don’t include teachers on temporary one-year contracts, who are not subject to formal lay-offs. This year, the district has sent end-of-contract letters to 106 full-time or part-time temporary teachers, Lewis said.

In the last three years, the district has already made $58 million in cuts, including trimming 276 employees, district officials say. It has closed two schools, negotiated employee pay cuts of 10 percent to 13 percent, shortened the school year and seen class sizes grow.

This year, though, it began considering closing additional elementary schools to deal with the problem of declining enrollment. Saddleback Valley Unified has the highest rate of declining enrollment in the county, and it costs the district about $3.8 million annually. A identified , Linda Vista and Trabuco elementaries as viable candidates for closure (the analysis will be discussed by the Facilities Advisory Committee at 7 p.m. tonight at ).

Teachers such as Armstrong aren’t the only ones in Saddleback Valley Unified who fear the worst.

Molly O’Grady, president of the Saddleback Valley Council PTA, which represents PTAs at 25 of the district’s schools, said she and other concerned parents have been frantically calling, e-mailing and speaking directly to state legislators asking them not to try to balance the budget solely with cuts.

“Right now, the funding for education is the most important thing,” said O’Grady. “If the tax extensions fail, we’re going to have $28 million in cuts in 2013. That will be devastating to our children.”

, voters would be asked to extend the tax increases put into place by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009 for another five years starting July 1, when they would otherwise expire.

The taxes include an added .25 percentage points to all personal income-tax rates, an elevation in the retail-sales levy by 1 percentage point to 8.25 percent, a boost of vehicle license fees to 1.15 percent and a lessening the dependent exemption.

The out-of-pocket cost of those taxes averages $260 per Californian, or $1,040 for a family of four, according to legislative officials, though the amount varies depending on a family’s income, spending habits and vehicles owned.

The district, meanwhile, has estimated that it will lose $330 per student—or $10 million annually—if Brown’s tax extensions don’t pass.

Brown has been unable to muster the support from Republican legislators that he would need to get it on the ballot and has hinted that he might find alternatives to get it in front of voters.

But in the meantime, educators must plan for the worst-case scenario. For pink-slipped teachers, that means hoping that a job will be waiting next fall.

“Overall, morale is lower this year,” said Armstrong. “I wish people would take a step back and look at the value they’re placing on education. They’re forgetting what we’re really trying to do. Education is a value in our society, and we need to treat it better.”