The Long Beach Unified School District is planning on laying off hundreds of teachers this school year, most recently 17 coaches at Millikan High School are in danger of being cut.

According to California state guidelines, seniority and academic credentials are the determining factors when making layoff decisions. The District does have some flexibility, however, by being able to exercise a practice known as “skipping,” the retaining of certain positions that would have otherwise have been laid off. Currently, speech pathologists, special education teachers, and other staff with special training are being skipped over, coaches are not.