Hundreds of San Francisco teachers whose jobs were on the chopping block are breathing a sigh of relief after the school district rescinded nearly all of the educator layoffs on Tuesday night.
For more, stream KCBS Radio now.
The San Francisco Unified School District in March sent pink slips to 357 educators to notify them that their services would no longer be needed in the coming school year. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the district was forced to make those layoffs ahead of a March 15 deadline, even though they won't know how much state funding they will receive until later this summer. As a result, the district was forced into a guessing game to determine how many teachers they will be able afford in the next school year.
"It's difficult for anyone receiving that preliminary layoff notice, and it’s very challenging for the people who they work with and their family," Assistant Superintendent Gentle Blythe told KCBS Radio.
However, thanks to a combination of optimism for increased revenue from the state and staff attrition, those firings were reduced to only 20 layoffs.
Furthermore, 15 of the 20 remaining layoffs impact administrators who have been or will be rehired for the next school year into other positions, Blythe said. The final five educators will have an opportunity to be rehired if vacancies open up.
All this comes as most school districts face a teacher shortage. According to Blythe, the district not only lost many educators during the "great resignation" — referring to the scores of professionals across the country who quit their job and changed careers due to the pandemic — but student enrollment also also declined as a result of COVID-19.
"So what that means is we have fewer teachers and other positions that we need and that we can afford," Blythe said.
Cassondra Curiel, president of the United Educators of San Francisco, told the Chronicle the last few months caused unnecessary stress for teachers.
"The instability and anxiety these proceedings have caused was entirely avoidable and we hope this serves as a lesson to all that educators are well informed and deserve the trust and respect of our communities, our city, and our employer," she said to the paper. "SFUSD has continued to construct and present crisis after crisis, without meaningfully contributing to curtailing public education’s most persistent problems: high turnover of educators, inadequate support for schools, to leave the district because they can't afford to wait around for a layoff notice to be rescinded every year."
LISTEN to KCBS Radio
FAVORITE KCBS Radio
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Related
