L.B. School Board Meeting Over $33.6M More in Cuts

The Long Beach Board of Education--meeting now in the latest bloodletting to address hemorraging state funding--may approve a proposed $33.6 million in additional cuts and layoff notices that will bring to about 700 the number of teachers to be pink-slipped.

At its meeting two weeks ago, the LBUSD board approved $27 million in funding cuts, increased the number of students in every classroom and closed two elementary schools. The classroom size increase effectively spelled lay-off for 429 full-time teaching positions. Tonight's agenda includes memorializing those 429 positions and adding about 270 more full-time teaching jobs. If the board members approve those cuts, it would bring the total slashing to $60.4 million in 14 days.

"Drastic" was the word that stood out in what, ordinarily, is a dry agenda document, under the headline "Unfinished Business." The narrative accompanying the agenda broke it down. The state of California has been reeling from economic hard times since fall of 2007, and that devastation's been passed on to every district including LBUSD's 100 schools. New Governor Jerry Brown has proposed a state budget that would stave off almost surreal financial cuts by extending income, sales and use taxes that otherwise would expire. It rides upon a June special election about the tax extensions.

But it ''did not outline a plan for funding school districts if the proposed initiative is unsuccessful," the introduction explained. Thus, the district, nationally recognized for its success at rising test scores for even the poorest neighborhoods in the 50-square-mile city, has to plan worst-case scenario.

That figure has been estimated at $155 million in potential total funding cuts by the district in order to remain solvent and staff minimum education standards. Two weeks ago, the 429 teaching slots were approved with the stress that they would be gone no matter if the June election cushioned some of the state's education funding deficits. Currently, the state still owes LBUSD about $115 million that may force the district to borrow to  make payroll in future months.

An additional $6 million was on the agenda as potentially movable to restricted funds in order to protect from pressure on the district's general fund, or operational accounts. Some of the proposed shifts included $2.3 million presently earmarked for accelerated learning programs at Wilson Classical, Poly PACE, QUEST and CIC. (These are sometimes generically thought of as GATE programs).

At the school board's last meeting two weeks ago, Superintendent Christopher Steinhauser indicated that he would do all that was possible to shelter such advanced learning programs because they are cornerstones to the nationally-recognized district, California's third-largest at 86,000 students.

Because LBUSD is the city's largest employer at 8,000 workers, staffing cuts have a significant impact on the overall economy of Long Beach, the state's sixth largest city.  Even if Brown's budget plan--the tax extension, and a threat to disband redevelopment agencies statewide to free up millions for education--wins voter approval, the district says it will still need to cut roughly $55 million in spending over two years.