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When her students in the special education class at Columbia Middle School were between teachers last year, instructional aide Patricia Goodman helped her students weather the change. Thirty different substitutes cycled through the classroom, but Goodman remained. "I was the one thing that was consistent," she said.
But Goodman now fears that similar situations will no longer occur in the Sunnyvale School District. At the June 10 meeting of the board of education, which was emotional on both sides of the dais, the four present members unanimously voted to approve the 200405 Adoption Budget, which included cuts to the district's classified-employee workforce.
The positions that are slated to be cut or reduced include custodians, counseling interns and child-guidance assistants. Including five vacancies and reduced hours, 20 positions will be affected. According to the district, 13 full- and part-time classified employees will lose their jobs altogether out of the approximately 235 who work for the district.
These losses inspired a cadre of classified employees, including Goodman, to attend the meeting to plead for alternate solutions. But before voting, members of the school board said they were bound to support what the district's staff had decided was the best course, despite their distaste for the layoffs.
Board member Bob Roberts made the motion to pass the budget. "Contrary to popular belief, we do respect you, we do appreciate you, and we're probably going to pass this budget," he said.
"Each one of you has added value to our organization, otherwise you wouldn't be here," added Board President Nancy Newkirk. "This economy downturn has impacted me personally, so I understand the impact of these actions on other families as well."
These comments were in response to statements made during the public-hearing portion of the meeting, during which a number of classified employees spoke about their dismay with what they viewed as as unfair targeting of their employee group. "You have broken the trust," said Gina Tiscareno, president of Sunnyvale Chapter 205 of the California School Employees Association, "the trust of the parents, students and employees to know that you are open to investigating and looking into all possibilities, conventional or unconventional, to bringing the best possible educational opportunities to those you were elected to represent."
Upon hearing word of the impending vote, the classified employees had worked to galvanize their fellow workers and district parents through fliers and advertisements, which said that classrooms would only be cleaned twice a week and that busing services would be reduced. A few employees said the vote was a surprise. "They did it sneaky," Goodman said. "I wouldn't have known a thing about it if it weren't for Gina."
Tiscareno said that she received a 30-day notice of impending layoffs, but was unable to find out at that time which positions were being cut. She added that some school principals had gotten lists of layoffs and had been going around informing affected employees not long before the meeting.
District Superintendent Joe Rudnicki said that with the economy being what it is, no one should have been surprised by the layoffs. "We held a budget summit in January and a community forum, and the deputy superintendent and I have visited every school and gotten a tremendous amount of input," he said. "This financial situation is not unique to Sunnyvale or to schools. There are not sufficient resources to be offering the education we should be offering."
A number of rising costs, including those for health insurance, workers' compensation and gas and electric bills, have not been alleviated by declining revenue. Even with the layoffs and reduced employee benefits, there are still $1.1 million in cuts that will have to be made after property tax information comes to the district in August.
Rudnicki said the reduced benefits were due to a proposal from the teachers union that made economic sense. The district still pays 100 percent of the primary employee's healthcare costs, but employees are now responsible for 30 percent of the coverage for their spouse and family. He pointed out this idea helps newer employees, who are traditionally the target of layoffs, but who are also more likely to be single. "This proposal was more palatable and acceptable," he said.
Adopting this proposal meant rejecting the ideas of the classified employees, who pleaded with the board to go back to the table with all employee groups to find a solution without any layoffs. Tiscareno touted a plan that the Palo Alto Unified School District came up with that imposes furlough days for employees at the beginning and end of the school year to save costs. "I'd give up a couple of days before school to save my job," Goodman said.
But Rudnicki said that solution wouldn't fit this district. "Palo Alto is not Sunnyvale," he said. "Our employees are extremely dedicated, but our deputy superintendent examined that idea and it's not going to work here." The district had previously paid more per student for classified employees than any other district in Santa Clara County, and Rudnicki said that with keeping cuts as far from the classroom as possible, that employee group unfortunately suffered.
After the meeting, several employees afraid for their jobs exchanged phone numbers. Goodman remarked that she only needs one more year to reach 25 years with the district, which makes her eligible for retirement. Rudnicki said that a high return on property taxes come August could result in a few rescinded layoffs, but with pink slips now in the mail, the anxious waiting begins.
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