Layoff notices for 505 Los Angeles Unified teachers and counselors were rescinded Friday by Schools Chief Ramon Cortines.
The official announcement comes two weeks after the district announced their successful early retirement incentive program and their “teacher buy-back plan” that gave schools federal stimulus dollars to buy back positions.
“We empowered local schools to make the purchasing decisions they believe will make their instructional program successful,” Cortines said.
“We are able to rescind these 505 reduction-in-force notices because of the decisions that were made by School Site Councils. Despite challenges from the state’s continuing budget crisis, LAUSD’s plan is working,” he said.
The district’s Board of Education voted April 14 to eliminate and reassign 8,800 positions in the hopes of closing a $596 million budget deficit.
The exact number of actual anticipated layoffs has been steadily dropping, thanks to the use of federal stimulus funding and early retirement programs.
These latest rescinded notices were sent to 120 counselors and 385 secondary, non-permanent teachers in addition to some 2,000 notices rescinded last month for permanent elementary school teachers.
District officials said this now leaves the total number of active lay-off notices for teachers and counselors at 2,520.
But teachers and union officials have continued to blast the district, accusing it of hoarding the bulk of the stimulus funding instead of using it to save jobs. Cortines has denied the accusation, saying the stimulus funds have been used to save jobs and stressing the new deficits the district faces, including a $130 million cut that needs to be made before July 1.Some teachers have been on a hunger strike to protest the planned firings. One of them told KFWB radio Friday that the rescission of 505 layoff notices was a positive step, but the hunger strike will continue until even more action is taken to save jobs.
“What we would also like to see is a decrease in class sizes in our schools,” he said.