Schools

It's Official: 27 Teachers Face the Ax at San Lorenzo USD

After issuing pink slips in March, the San Lorenzo Unified's Board voted Tuesday to lay off 27 teachers.

It was bad, but if recent history is any indication,  it could have been so much worse. 

For the fourth year running, the San Lorenzo Unified School District board voted to lay off dozens of teachers pink-slipped in March. 

But unlike in 2009 and 2010, when those numbers ran into the 50s and 60s, Tuesday night's casualties numbered just 27, the fewest since heavy layoffs began in 2008—though critics point out that number doesn't account for temporary teachers, 79 of whom received layoff notices in February. 

Find out what's happening in San Leandrowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"The decisions that the school board has made over the last few years guarantees that the staff is thrown up like a deck of cards," said Sue Granzella, a teacher at Lorenzo Manor. "When people get scattered to the winds, it guarantees more failures."

Layoffs hit under-performing schools particularly hard. Hillside Elementary School, now in its sixth year of program improvement, has replaced 50 percent of its staff each of the past few years due to layoffs. At East Bay Arts, it's more than 60 percent. 

Find out what's happening in San Leandrowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The board said uncertainty in Sacramento has forced its hand. With no clear picture of what the coming year's budget will be, the district has had to plan for the worst, officials said. 

That uncertainty has trickled down to teachers, with at least one unexpected consequence. 

Assistant Superintendent Sharon Lampel said an unusually small number of faculty are retiring this year— just seven so far, less than half of what she usually sees — a trend that means fewer reprieves for pink-slipped teachers.

(Departing teachers have until the end of the academic year to file their retirement, whereas layoffs must be finalized by May.)

Some may have been spooked by the sluggish economy, opting to hang on to their seniority. Others may just be dragging their feet. 

"One of them, we read the announcement of her retirement party," although she still had not turned in the forms to make her departure official, Lampel said. "I told the principal, you're not going to that party unless I get those forms." 


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