The Berkeley Unified School District is getting ready to let go of teachers. This time is was 48 educators who found themselves on the receiving end of a layoff notice from their employer. The layoff notices, which come into effect for the next school year and not immediately like many pink slips, is going to affect 20 interim teachers and 28 teachers who are regular members of the staff.  The layoff notices are being sent out as part of a worst-case scenario plan. The schools are hoping that when the budget comes in from the state level that fewer layoffs will have to occur. That having been said the way that the notification system works the school must prepare for the worst and hope they do not need to cut as many jobs

The Berkeley schools are expecting to face at least a $3 million revenue deficit and that is if a proposed tax initiative goes through. If the voters cut it down in November then the schools may be looking at more like a $6.8 million dollar budget hole that will need to be plugged up before the new school year begins in September.

Believe it or not this is actually one of the smaller layoff actions in the state of California. The state is being rocked by some massive budget changes that are leaving many educators out of work. For those of you who missed out on our earlier coverage here is an excerpt:

“It looks like things are getting much, much worse for the schoolteachers in the state of California. We have been talking a lot, in the last couple of weeks and months about the kinds of cuts that are being made to the schools in the state. In a lot of cases those cuts are being made in generic terms we know how many workers are going to be let go, but we do not know how many of them will be classroom teachers. Today we had some light shed on those numbers.

According to information released by the California Teachers Association an estimated 19,500 classroom teachers were given layoff notices over the past couple of weeks. The layoff notices had to be given by the 15^th of March in order to be legal under the laws of the state of California. So if an educator did not get a layoff notice by that date then they are free and clear, at least until next years deadline.

The cuts, which are coming because of the need to cut 20 Billion in funding from the state education budget. Unless the schools get a tax increase from voters in the near future, which is on the ballet, the schools will have to make these cuts, which average out to about $370 per student in the state. The only good news for schools is that the number of enrolled students at California schools is, depending on where you live, either staying stable or shrinking.”

Given that most districts in the state sent out layoff notices in the 100’s or in some cases the 1,000’s  Berkeley may actually be getting off light this time around.