BCSD considers laying off 100 workers
BY JORGE BARRIENTOS, Californian staff writer jbarrientos@bakersfield.com
Bakersfield City School District's school board on Tuesday will consider reducing 111 classified positions due to lack of work and money.
They include activity leaders, aides, community relations liaisons, library media assistants, clerks and custodians.
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BCSD LAYOFF PROPOSAL - CLASSIFIED STAFF
Total: 111
Reassigned jobs: 11
Full-time jobs: 10
Various aides: 66
Community relations, outreach liaisons: 13
Various clerks: 8
Activity leaders: 5
Custodians: 2
Library media assistants: 2
Campus supervisor: 1
Source: Bakersfield City School District agenda, spokesman
Of the 111 positions involved, 11 employees will be reassigned and the rest will receive layoff notices, a district spokesman said. Of those 100 layoffs leftover, 10 involve full-time positions.
Fifty-three of the positions involve aides who work three hours a day.
Employees can be recalled depending on such things as retirements. Or they can reapply for vacancies, can work as substitutes, a spokesman said.
The district is trying to close a $5.5 million budget gap next year. In recent months, BCSD has proposed cutting 120 full-time equivalent certificated positions, mostly teachers.
Last month, it decided to close the doors of Rafer Johnson Community Day School, an alternative school serving dozens of middle-schoolers with behavior problems, to save $700,000.
BCSD, the largest elementary school district in California, has lost roughly $25 million from its budget in the last two years. Superintendent Michael Lingo has called this year the "worst of times for Bakersfield City School District."
In other business, the school board will also discuss a contract agreement with the California School Employees Association.
In addition, it will follow in the steps of two other local school districts and consider changing the way school board elections are held in the future. The change could cut election costs for candidates, help avoid potential lawsuits and give minorities better representation on school boards, officials said.
For more on this, read recent reports regarding the Kern High School District and Panama-Buena Vista Union School District at Bakersfield.com.
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