CALEXICO – The Calexico Unified School District Board of Trustees will consider the potential layoffs of certificated employees during its regular meeting tonight as a precautionary measure in case categorical funds are lost.
Calexico Unified Superintendent Maria Ambriz said the district has been advised it may have a decrease in federal categorical funding, which helps provide for some positions such as academic support teachers or migrant counseling positions.
“The categorical funds in most districts are going to be affected,” she said. “If we have a reduction in Title 1 funds coming into the district, we have to decide if the district could support these positions with other categorical funding or general fund dollars, and our general fund dollars are really tight.”
If approved, it could affect up to 16 positions, but Ambriz said she hopes it will actually be lower, possibly 10 positions, depending on other employees’ retirements.
“The support teachers are a very strong component of the school improvement process so we’re trying to get all the funding we can possibility get so we can avoid layoffs as much as possible. We hoped we wouldn’t have any at all this year,” she said.
The board’s next regular meeting is March 12, and employees need to receive pink slips before the March 15 deadline.
Pink slips could be rescinded at a later date, but Ambriz said it’s unclear when the district will know how much categorical funding it will receive. The news will likely come after March 15.
“It’s really hard to hold these conversations, because we really don’t employ people to have to let them go and when you put the human aspect into it, we all have heart. We wish that we could be able to put them out of the uncertainty as soon as possible,” she said. “That’s going to be our primary goal. One layoff is one too many but unfortunately we have to do what is necessary obviously to remain solvent and with the funds that we do have.”
Staff Writer Chelcey Adami can be reached at 650-337-3452 or cadami@ivpressonline.com
If you go
What Calexico Unified School District board meeting
Where District Administration Board Room, 901 Andrade Ave.
When 6 p.m. tonight
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This story was amended to correct that categorical funding referenced was not state funding but federal funding.
