School district approves layoff list

Workforce reductions could come as officials face $2M budget hole and costly sex abuse settlement

After declining to tentatively layoff employees in January, the Moreno Valley school board has agreed to cut the equivalent of 69.5 positions.

Though it’s routine for districts to approve possible layoffs before California’s March 15 deadline to notify affected employees and to later rescind some, the Moreno Valley Unified School District is also trying to cut costs after declaring that it’s facing “undue financial hardship” at a special meeting last month.

That resolution cites a projected 2023-24 general fund deficit of about $2 million, and the need to pay legal fees and settlements, including $121.5 million awarded to two former students who were molested by a teacher in the 1990s. District spokesperson Anahi Velasco said in October that the insurance policy the district had at the time will cover about 11% of it, leaving the district to pay about $108 million. Weeks before, the district also agreed to a $27 million settlement for the 2019 death of Landmark Middle School student Diego Stolz, 13, who was beaten by two school bullies and died of his injuries nine days later.

In January, employees and board members took issue with the 80 positions originally selected by administrators to be potentially cut. Board members asked officials to look for other ways to cut spending, and to consider reducing more district office positions in order to keep more employees who work at schools.

“This is sad, but we have to make a decision tonight,” Ruth Self-williams said Feb. 13.

Self-williams, the board’s vice president, asked what would happen if the district failed to come up with a plan.

The outcome, Riverside County Office of Education Chief Business Official Scott Price told the board, is that if the district “gets to a point