School Board Lays Off 8 Employees; Fundraising Continues

Four teachers and four counselors won't be returning to schools in the fall as part of the trimming of a $3.8 million budget shortfall, but officials say they would try to restore those pink-slipped positions by the end of the school year.

The Board of Education voted 5-0 Tuesday to terminate at one teacher at A.E. Wright Middle School and at Agoura High.

Fifty-one employees were initially given layoff notices in March, but a majority of them were rescinded due to more than $1 million in donations, salaries saved from the retirement of 28 teachers and contributions from local agencies and governments.

As of May 10, the donation driven Save Our Schools campaign has raised $358,000, the highest pool of money allocated toward saving teaching jobs.

"What we're proposing here tonight is beyond anything we would have guessed four weeks ago," said Supt. Donald Zimring during the meeting.

Board of Education Vice President Cindy Iser said she is sorry for having to layoff eight workers, but added that the fundraising efforts would continue and that the school district would seek contributions from local municipalities.

The city of Westlake Village and Hidden Hills contributed $50,000 and $7,000, respectively, to the LVUSD.

An additional $466,000 is required to keep the pink-slipped employees on staff, said Assistant Supt. of Personnel Dan Stepenosky.

Several parents in attendance at the school board meeting thanked district officials for reducing the number of layoff notices, but wished the terminated counseling positions could have been saved.

Stepenosky said because of layoffs, the ratio of students to counselors at the high school level would grow from 350:1 to 500:1.

Wendy Ehrlich, a Calabasas High parent, said she believes a bigger ratio means counselors won't be as effective in helping students plan for college.

"I've seen an enormous amount of time and effort counselors put into making sure every single student has the tools to not only advance through high school, but attend the best college possible," she said.

Calabasas High senior and school representative to the board Cameron Nili also vouched for the importance of adequate counseling staffing.

"Counselors make an extra effort on top of an extra effort to help students because it is one of the most stressful times of your life," he said.

Despite layoffs only occurring at the high school level, elementary schools still may lose teaching jobs.

Six K-6 teachers could be called upon to move up and teach at the secondary level within the LVUSD to replace positions vacated by retirees, Stepenosky said. One middle school teacher could also be sent to teach at the high school level, he added.

That sort of restructuring could bump the elementary class size average from 22 students per teacher to 25 students, said Rose Dunn, director of instruction.

However, the student to teacher ratio could have ballooned to 29:1 if all teachers who were issued layoff notices ended up losing their jobs, Stepenosky said.

An additional $847,000 is needed to bring staff levels back to normal, said Karen Kimmel, the district's chief business official.

Dunn said staff reorganization is to be conducted by the end of the school year.