San Diego Unified staff and faculty rally against district layoff plan

The San Diego Education Association Union reports there are several gaps in the district's budget that are wide enough to avoid laying off staff.

“Just in the books and supplies budget alone, typically there’s $35 million in that budget,” said Lisa Morris, San Diego Education Association Vice President. “Right now there’s $95 million in that budget, more than enough to keep these teachers in their schools and with their students.”

The district’s last major layoff was seven years ago.

“We had quite a deep budget cut,” said Central Office Administrator, Donis Coronel. “And then I know back in the early 2000s and prior to that also, so it does come around every now and then.”

This time around, hundreds of district staff got layoff notices, including Porter Elementary second grade teacher Jacob Willis.

He’s been in the district for two years. He hasn’t been there long and he knows the layoffs are largely based on seniority. So, he saw his layoff notice coming.

“It was a Friday, like 20 minutes before school ended,” Willis said. “Somebody came into my room to cover my class and I kind of put the pieces together that I was going to be receiving a layoff notice at that time.”

This is his first full year getting to make his classroom his own. As for his students, layoffs are not easy for a group of eight-year-olds to process.

“Some of them overheard that I might not be coming back next year,” Willis said. “And of course, my kids were very upset about that.”

NBC 7 reached out to the district for a statement response.

School Board President Shana Hazan, said:

“As a district, we are committed to balancing our budget without significant impacts to students and school sites. Over the last year, our team has worked to thoughtfully and strategically build a budget that considers the needs of our children first and foremost. Our current staffing projections and potential staff reductions are the result of a combination of the loss of nearly $540 million in COVID relief funds, declining enrollment, and decreased state revenue projections. We are grateful for our hardworking and committed San Diego Unified team and know that having to lay off even one employee is extremely significant. While we have given layoff notices to hundreds of employees, we are maximizing attrition and available reserves to minimize layoffs, and we are hopeful we can continue to reduce the actual number of employees affected before May 15 when reductions are to be finalized.”

This deadline is less than two months away.

“I still got to come to school every day and teach my kids and provide them the best education I can,” Willis said. “Knowing that they have the security of coming in every day and learning, but the same can't be said for me can make it make it a little more stressful, a little more tiring at the end of each day.”