Board meeting tonight set to finalize education layoffs

SAN DIEGO – The Board of Education is scheduled to affirm an administrative law judge's decision to uphold 1,543 layoffs at a special meeting Tuesday night.

In a ruling released Monday, a judge upheld the notices sent by the San Diego Unified School District to teachers and other
certified employees.

The Board of Education issued 1,666 layoff notices in March as the
trustees tried to close an estimated $120 million budget gap for the next
school year. Some were part-time employees, so the layoff list was comprised of
the equivalent of 1,628 full-time positions.

About 1,000 of the workers appealed their inclusion on the list of those
to be laid off at the end of this school year.

Administrative Law Judge Roy Hewitt ruled that school districts are
given “wide discretion” in budget setting and layoff notices, which are
generally upheld unless found to be fraudulent or an abuse of a district's
authority.

Also at Tuesday's meeting, board members are set to consider a resolution that
states the district will not seek emergency loans from the state in order to
balance the next fiscal year's budget.

Trustee Scott Barnett recently said the district is insolvent, and
should hold onto its employees so it could undergo an orderly restructuring of
its finances. Board President John Lee Evans said Barnett was panicking, but
also accused teacher union leaders of understating the SDUSD's financial woes.