More than 8,800 teachers and other employees of the Los Angeles Unified School District will receive notices of impending layoffs for the next school year, the school board decided last week.
The district, with 688,000 students, faces a $718 million budget shortfall. The notices were to go out by March 15, and the actual number of layoffs will be determined no later than June 30.
The California Department of Education hasn’t projected the number of teachers who could be laid off statewide, but the California Teachers Association has been tracking pink slips issued to teachers and said last week that more than 20,000 had been issued.
Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines said factors that will determine the actual number of layoffs in the Los Angeles system will include declining enrollment, the effectiveness of an early-retirement incentive package being developed, state funding, and the amount of money the district may receive from the federal economic-stimulus measure.
