Anaheim school district to lay off more than 100 teachers amid declining enrollment
Two dozen parents and students marched against steep cuts that will reduce teacher staffing by 10% across Anaheim Union High School District campuses.
Protesters gathered at the Brookhurst Community Center in Anaheim after school on Thursday and descended on the district’s headquarters a mile and a half away with the chant “no teachers, no future.”
“We are very concerned and outraged to hear that a lot of our teachers are going to be let go,” said Sofia Romero, a mother to two children attending AUHSD schools. “We understand there’s a budget issue, but the district knew it was coming. They could’ve stopped investing in other things we don’t need.”
Hailey Sotelo, an eighth-grader at Brookhurst Junior High School, helped organize the protest march after many parents and students felt disheartened following the school board meeting where the cuts were approved.
“From talking to a lot of students, I know we’re all very worried and concerned,” Sotelo said. “We’re concerned about how big class sizes are going to be. Class size does determine how well a teacher can teach.”
A petition circulated online has also garnered over 3,000 signatures from those opposed to the staffing cuts.
On March 7, trustees approved mass teacher layoffs by a 4-0 vote during a packed school board meeting. Since then, the original tally of layoffs has increased to include 119 teachers.
According to district officials, enrollment has declined by nearly 5,000 students since the 2011-12 academic school year, a drop that is expected to double within five years.
Currently, AUHSD serves 27,000 students across campuses in Anaheim, Buena Park, Cypress, La Palma and Stanton. According to California Department of Education statistics, 70% of the student body is Latino.
Supt. Michael Matsuda addressed the layoffs in a video message released on Tuesday and likened declining enrollment to losing a “high school and a junior high school worth of students.”
He dismissed what he called “misinformation” about the layoffs and claimed they don’t unfairly target teachers.
“Contrary to such beliefs, we have worked tirelessly to prioritize the retention of all staff members, including teachers,” Matsuda said. “Last year, we made reductions across various departments, including counseling and classified areas in response to evolving needs and challenges.”
Attendance, the district reported, is also down 6% from the 2020-21 school year, when students attended classes remotely during the pandemic.
The layoffs, which will become permanent on May 15, are slated to reduce costs by $18.4 million.
But district officials still anticipate reserve funds being in the red within three years and are eyeing a future bond measure to shore up its finances.
There is also some hope that California’s bleak $73-million budget deficit might improve in May when Gov. Gavin Newsom is able to make revisions.
Fearing overcrowded classrooms and a lower quality of education, students and parents spoke out against the cuts during the school board meeting.
“We understand that the district is facing declining enrollment and attendance,” said Haley Nguyen, a junior at Oxford Academy in Cypress. “We understand that considering those statistics, the budget has to be dialed in. But we don’t understand why this has to come off the backs of teachers alone.”
The Anaheim Secondary Teachers Assn. estimated that the district’s expected enrollment decline next year required only 45 layoffs, not 119.
Geoff Morganstern, president of the teachers’ union, questioned why the district and its teachers bore the burden of mass layoffs alone.
“If we’re heading off the cliff, then it seems very odd that we’re just laying off teachers and not anybody else,” he said.
It’s not an attrition, Morganstern argued, that other school districts in Orange County are undertaking despite similar circumstances.
“All districts are facing reduced enrollment, all districts are suffering from absenteeism,” he said. “I can’t explain why our district leadership has recommended to the school board to cut 10% of our teachers when no other district around is doing it. It really comes down to budget priorities.”
California Teachers Assn. staff is analyzing the district’s budget and will be preparing a formal response to it.
In the meantime, the district has argued that even with the layoffs implemented, classrooms sizes will still be under the negotiated maximum.
The current average high school class size is 39 students. For junior high schools, it’s 37.
Morganstern said that the district has tried to leverage lower class sizes with cutting cost-of-living raises, a dead-end bargaining point for the union.
“We know that lower class sizes is best for all,” Morganstern said. “It’s not a gift for teachers. And with the complexity of school nowadays, with the needs coming out of the pandemic, it’s really the only way for us to get everything done in a reasonable and effective way.”
With the expected layoffs, the union president is doubtful that the district will be able to keep to the contract maximum on class sizes.
Trustees thanked students for raising their concerns at the March 7 school board meeting but expressed reluctance ahead of the layoff vote.
“We do have an obligation to maintain a [fiscally] responsible budget and address the economic challenges ahead of us,” said Trustee Jessica Guerrero.
Board President Annemarie Randle-Trejo told the teachers in the room that the layoffs had nothing to do with the hard work they bring into the classroom every day and everything to do with the district’s financial future.
“If we do not face this, we do not have a school district,” she said. “We can’t run a school district on negative funds.”
The school board was also set to discuss a 4.5% raise for Matsuda, his assistant superintendents and the district’s lawyers, but the item was pulled before last week’s meeting.
In his video message, Matsuda announced that he would forgo seeking the raise.
“While this gesture may seem small in the grand scheme of our district’s operations,” he said, “I hope it sends a meaningful message of solidarity and shared responsibility.”
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