Stanislaus Office of Education issues layoffs to teachers, staff as enrollment declines
Local agencies are awash in COVID-19 relief funding. And local school districts struggle with a teacher shortage.
So why is the Stanislaus County Office of Education giving layoff notices to teachers and other employees?
An administrator confirmed SCOE is laying off employees this week, including 18 teachers, two managers and six classified employees.
Jeff Albritton, assistant superintendent of education options, said SCOE has identified a $5 million shortfall caused by an enrollment drop of around 500 students.
The county office will deal with the shortfall over two years. Albritton said in addition to the 26 layoffs this week, more personnel cuts could be coming next year. But SCOE will look for ways to retain students and make budget adjustments to reduce the layoffs in 2023, Albritton said.
The layoffs are across the board in alternative education programs including SCOE’s two military-style academies, PACE community school, Valley College High School, the Comeback Kids program for adults and education activities in the county juvenile justice system.
Albritton said classes and programs will continue with the appropriate number of teachers for smaller enrollments. Many of the affected staff were teaching classes online or working with students in independent study.
SCOE is citing a pattern of local school districts referring fewer students to the county Office of Education. The districts have their own programs for students who don’t succeed the first time around.
The county office began seeing the declining numbers five or six years ago. Alternative education programs also are affected as families move to other states, students don’t attend classes and fewer young people are committed to the juvenile justice system.
COVID delayed decisions
Albritton said the state’s traditional funding method based on student attendance was frozen during the COVID-19 pandemic, giving SCOE the same apportionment as the previous year and delaying decisions to address the shortfall. Some vacant positions were not filled this year.
But the state is now going back to the normal method of funding based on attendance. Teachers and other employees were first told about the cuts in a Zoom meeting in late January, and affected employees were notified Monday. The layoffs affect those with the least seniority.
Teachers and other employees are being notified well ahead of a required March 15 date to give them more time to apply for jobs.
“While I was one of the lucky ones spared in this year’s layoff, I feel terrible for the teachers who were given pink slips yesterday,” Debbie Adair, a teacher for SCOE, said by email. “They have lost their livelihoods and many of them had achieved tenure in this district.”
Adair said in her opinion, there has been a lack of transparency. She said SCOE is not offering a golden handshake giving teachers a retirement option, which would save jobs. Adair also was critical of the union representing the teachers.
The union didn’t respond to an email Tuesday seeking comment on the layoffs.
SCOE has received millions of dollars in COVID relief money, but it’s funding that can’t be used for teacher salaries, Albritton said. “We would not pay salaries that way because the students are not there,” he said.
SCOE could develop other programs
SCOE will try to develop other programs that support school districts and also will do more to promote what it offers now.
Albritton said SCOE does not try to compete with local school districts for students. He said it’s better for a student in an outlying district to find support close to home than travel to a program in Modesto.
Philip Alfano, superintendent of Patterson Joint Unified School District, said his district has referred fewer students to SCOE programs mainly because of geography, though he didn’t have numbers.
Even before the COVID pandemic, he said, some of the county programs required Patterson students to travel 20 to 35 miles one way.
“If we have services here in Patterson, it doesn’t make sense for the student to go to Turlock or Modesto,” Alfano said. “They do run some independent study programs in Patterson, but we have our own independent study programs.”
This story was originally published February 9, 2022 at 7:07 AM.
