With the state law notification deadline of March 15 looming, the Los Angeles Unified School District said the other day 609 teachers could be laid off at the end of the semester.
Orange County may dump 2,000.
Statewide, 20,000 teachers could lose their jobs by June.
In Culver City, no teacher will be bounced to save the School District money. Not a single notification of potential discharge went out from Irving Place.
Mike Reynolds, in his third year as assistant superintendent for business, remains undefeated – not one teacher has been handed a March 15 pink slip.
How dramatically times have changed in Culver City schools. During the Great Recession, notices by the dozens were sent out.
The jovial, immensely congenial Mr. Reynolds arrived in the School District the last week of October 2012. Days later California voters approved Prop. 30 – a sales tax increase to buttress funding for public schools — by 55 percent to 45. That was a massive difference-maker, raising the state sales tax rate from 7.25 percent to 7.50 percent.
Never mind that the tax hike took effect Jan. 1, 2013, and funding for schools was retroactive to Jan. 1, 2012.
In Culver City, the School District by that time was better fortified than many districts.
“When I got here, the School District was in very good shape, and Prop. 30 made it even better,” Mr. Reynolds said this morning.
Even without Prop. 30 funding, he said the District would have been in good condition financially “because of our reserves.
“Prop. 30 prevented the reduction in our annual revenue of probably close to $3 million.”
Prop. 30 is due to sunset in December 2018, and by that time, said Mr. Reynolds, “we should be even better off than we are today.”
