MDUSD Looking to Lay off 180 Teachers and Other Staff

The Mount Diablo Unified School District Board of Education will vote Tuesday to issue layoff notices to 180 full-time teachers from kindergarten to high school, as well as principals, counselors and aides. 

Teachers facing the specter of pink slips include 33 music teachers, 28 high school teachers, nine middle-school core teachers and 27 elementary school teachers, according to the agenda for Tuesday's meeting.

Also on the district's list of employees to receive lay-off notices are two school principals and 20 library media teachers. 

The district is facing a $21.9 million shortfall from its 2011-12 budget. At Tuesday's meeting, the board will consider "a menu of cuts" to address the $25.4 billion shortfall in Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed budget for 2011-12. 

These potential cuts are wide ranging. In addition to laying off teachers, the district is considering cutting full-time maintenance and office staff and reorganizing programs, such as those that provide services to students with mental-health needs.

The board will vote on a resolution to send the layoff notices to teachers and other school staff but will not vote on the other cuts until its March 15 meeting.

With regard to the teachers and other school staff, these pink slips don't constitute final termination notices. The school district is legally required to give advance notice to teachers that their jobs might be eliminated depending on how final budget numbers for the 2011-12 school year shake out. 

With regard to its teaching staff,  the district will not consider eliminating staff with certificates in bilingual or cross-cultural education, those who teach highly specialized programs or bilingual psychologists.  

Many teachers, district staff, parents and students are experiencing a sense of deja vu, especially those who are concerned about music education in the district. 

Last school year, to slash $50 million from a three-year budget, the district handed out pink slips to 170 teachers, . The move would have effectively eliminated music education in the district. 

The district, which spans Walnut Creek, Concord, Clayton and Pleasant Hill, has become one of the most dramatic examples in the region of the sacrifices schools are forced to make in light of California's financial crisis.

And since music isn't considered part of a student's core curriculum, its various programs and the folks who teach it are among the first in the line of fire.

In fact, concerns about threats to music education prompted concerned parents and teachers to create the Mount Diablo Music Education Foundation. The foundation works to keep fourth- and fifth-grade instrumental music in the schools.

One of the teachers who received a pink slip , instrumental music director of Northgate High School's award-winning music program. He was one of 25 Mount Diablo Unified School District music teachers told they might not have a job this school year. As with other music teachers, his job was saved at the last minute because administrators ran out of time with the teachers union over the cuts, so most layoff notices were rescinded.

I e-mailed Brown to ask whether he is one of the music teachers likely to get a pink slip but have not heard back. The district has not published a list of names of teachers and staff receiving pink slips. 

The meeting is Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in the school district board room, 1936 Carlotta Drive, Concord.