GJUHSD superintendent: No teacher layoffs after all

Early retirements, class period eliminations help close budget gap

GALT — A week after announcing major personnel cuts were needed to close a large budget deficit, the Galt Joint Union High School District has staved off teacher layoffs for next school year due to early retirements and eliminating a number of school periods.

In an email announcement sent to trustees Friday, Superintendent Elizabeth Kaufman said the measures resulted in a savings of $902,395.

She credits the retirees for making the opportunity to keep the current certificated teaching staff; the counselors and administrators who worked to get students enrolled quickly so that the district had figures for staffing by the end of February; to the union who worked quickly to bargain incentives, to the Budget Advisory Committee and consultant Paul Disario who oversaw the process; and to the trustees who approved a plan that provides long-term stability to the district.

Kaufman noted that a special acknowledgment goes to Sean Duncan, the district’s director of educational services.

“I can honestly say that we would not have been able to avoid layoffs without his diligent and relentless review of staffing, course loads based on student needs, analysis of how particular kinds of services would be addressed with various staffing configurations we must consider in order to start 17-18 with sustainable staffing,” Kaufman said.

The budget reduction plans and priorities, including the retirement incentive, were approved by the board on Feb. 21. Trustees met again on Feb. 27

to amend that incentive in order to offer a broader array of resources to teachers considering retirements.

The adjustment was designed to save the district $900,000 in next school year’s budget and was necessary due to relatively flat state funding, declining enrollment and increasing pension costs.

Now, the retirement of teachers Miu-Ling Cheng, Michael Erwin, Doug Floyd and Janice Williams, and the three teachers who resigned during the course of the year will save the district more than $483,000 annually in salaries alone, according to budget documents provided Friday.

The remaining funding gap will be closed with the elimination of 22 class periods.

Also, the district will move forward with reducing salaries by 5 percent for the superintendent, chief business officer, director of educational operations and innovative programs, and director of education service. The action will save an estimated $27,000.

There could also be more resignations. To qualify for the early retirement incentive, teachers have until 4 p.m. Tuesday to submit a letter.

The district continues to be staffed at approximately two full-time positions beyond its staffing ratio and are mindful that should they receive additional resignations over the course of the summer, staff will not be hired to replace them, Kaufman said.

“At the moment, we believe that these will be used ‘on the natural’ to cover various scheduling conflicts and needs we uncover as we finalize the 17-18 master schedule,” she said, adding that fall’s enrollment will require some teachers to travel between sites and/or some transfers from one site to the other to cover specific courses.

“However, the fact that we do not need to lay off teachers is a huge boost for our district.”