District eliminates positions

The La Cañada Unified School Board Tuesday approved the elimination of 2.5 permanent teaching positions and 2.2 temporary teaching positions, the latest in a series of cost-cutting measures taken by the district as it tries to manage a $4 million budget shortfall.

Three people within the La Cañada district will lose their jobs due to the cuts. One position was vacant.

The permanent positions were cut in conjunction with the closure of Foothills School, slated to be shuttered at the end of the school year, said Wendy Sinnette, assistant superintendent for human resources. Foothills School served the district’s special needs students, but enrollment was on the decline, reaching just five students this year. The district has been working to phase out the school, and transition students to a sister institution, Magnolia Park School in Burbank.

The additional cuts were made not through layoffs, Sinnette said, but by terminating temporary contracts for certificated high school teachers.

“That will be handled through temporary teacher releases and that is related to ninth-grade class size reduction increases in math and language arts,” Sinnette said.

All affected staff members have been notified, Sinnette said. State law requires that districts notify credentialed employees by March 15 that they may be terminated.

La Cañada Unified has made class size reduction a priority, although it has become increasingly difficult with decreasing state funding, school officials said. The district has shed more than a dozen positions during the past two years through a combination of retirements and layoffs.

“We will still be maintaining a viable class size in K-3 and ninth grade, but they won’t be at strictly 20 any more,” Supt. James Stratton said. “They will be mid-20s, which is still much lower than statewide [averages] classes up in the 30s, so that is still a very good class.”

The district is committed to preserving an outstanding learning environment despite fiscal restraints, Sinnette said.

“We are taking every measure to support staff and we are trying to maintain the integrity of the instructional program,” Sinnette said.

La Cañada teachers today will protest the $17 billion in state cuts to education, said Rick Jordan, president of the La Cañada Teachers Assn. The demonstrations, which will take place at each school site start starting at 7 a.m., are part of a statewide action organized by the California Teachers Assn.

“This is to once again to send a message to Sacramento to request that cuts to education are curtailed and more revenue is provided for us,” Jordan said.