This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

Keeping Tabs: GUSD Won't Issue Teacher Pink Slips

A weekly look at what's going on with the Gilroy Unified School District.

No teacher employed by the Gilroy Unified School District (GUSD) will receive a pink slip March 15, the day mandated by the state that school districts notify employees they are being let go, typically as a cost cutting measure.

Superintendent Debbie Flores made the decision not to recommend layoffs and the GUSD board approved her resolution during their meeting Thursday.

The district, which faces of between $3.2 million and $7.2 million next school year, has several cost cutting recommendations on the table. One of the recommendations is to increase class sizes, which will decrease the demand for teachers.

Find out what's happening in Gilroywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Flores said that 35 teachers will be leaving at the end of this school year or sooner because they are temporary employees, are retiring, taking leaves of absence or are leaving for reasons such as moving out of state.

“We don’t need to do layoffs because we have the number of teachers leaving that would have to be released if class sizes increase,” she said.

Find out what's happening in Gilroywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

It’s only thanks to this attrition that the district is able to avoid layoffs.

I wouldn’t have left this resolution off of a board agenda if [the numbers] didn’t work because I wouldn’t put the district in danger,” Flores said.

The decision not to send out pink slips came after six weeks of careful analysis, Flores explained. While the School Services of California, which makes fiscal recommendations to state schools, advised districts to follow the March 15 process of laying off staff, Flores and GUSD board member Mark Good said they didn’t see the need to send teachers packing.

“[Layoffs] are traumatic for employees and for the district,” Good said. “If you have X amount of employees leaving through attrition, why would you do layoffs on top of that?”

On Monday, the district will present its retirement incentive to teachers. Flores said the Gilroy Teachers Association (GTA) surveyed its members and found that 27 eligible teachers would be interested in the retirement package. She anticipates at least ten retiring because of the incentive this year, further lessening the need for layoffs.

The board is also considering putting a parcel tax before voters to help beat its budget shortfall. They approved a contract Thursday for a consultant to do a feasibility study on whether district residents would approve of a parcel tax and how much they would be willing to pay. Flores said she hopes the consultant will be back before the board in five to six weeks with recommendations.

Looking Ahead

The board will hear its second interim report, which acts as a quarterly fiscal report for the district, during its next meeting on March 15.

“It will tell us where we are and make some predictions on where we will be at the end of the year,” Flores said.

The board will also hear a finalized agreement between the city and GUSD regarding the aquatics activity center at as well as continue discussion on moving the Community Media Access Parternship from to Christopher.

Good said that he expects both the board and the GTA to “sunshine” a proposal to begin negotiations over budget cut recommendations during the March 15 meeting.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?