LIVERMORE — Dozens of frustrated parents, teachers and residents packed the Livermore Valley Unified School District Board meeting Tuesday night, rallying against a proposal to shutter two elementary schools to help close a $16 million budget deficit.
The potential cuts — $14.8 million next school year and $1.5 million left to trim the following year — could also put more than 100 jobs on the chopping block, according to district documents. After hearing from more than 30 speakers among the standing-room-only crowd, the school board voted unanimously to table the discussion and return to it later.
Thus far, the district has not identified which elementary schools could face closure.
The list of proposed cuts would be “insulting and an abuse of trust to this community, ” JuNelle Harris, a Livermore resident and mother to a second grade student, told the board Tuesday night. She urged the school board to first hold wider discussions with parents, calling any immediate decision “completely inappropriate” and one that would cause “tremendous damage” to students.
“It’s not a snap judgement to be made,” Harris said in an interview at Tuesday’s meeting. “They don’t have a clear methodology. They’re very low on data … All we’ve gotten are these vague spreadsheets.”
Board Trustee Craig Bueno said it would be “grossly unfair” for the board to approve a list of cuts Tuesday night, the same night they voted to approve a new tentative labor agreement with the Livermore Education Association that will cost the district over $13 million through the next two years. The agreement with the teachers’ union included a “me too” clause that secures the same compensation adjustments for the district’s other labor unions.
Bueno said it would not be right for the district to approve raises for its employees the same night it approves closing the schools they work at.
Trustee Christiaan VandenHeuvel, who acknowledged the “great frustration, great concern, (and) some fear” among the crowd, said he would not be prioritizing the list of cuts “tonight or any night,” and instead directed the job of deciding which cuts were more important than others to Superintendent Tori Gibson. His comments drew boos from attendees.
“I will be supporting her in her decisions, and disagreeing loudly … when I think she is making a mistake,” VandenHeuvel said.
Board President Steven Drouin aimed his comments at Gibson, claiming she has sought “minimal” and “reluctant input from others.”
“This feels like a rush job to move on and get done with,” Drouin said, before making a motion to delay a decision.
During public comment, Herb Guidry, an operations and maintenance manager for the district, told the board he is already the only maintenance worker that oversees cleaning two pools, alongside other tasks that he has no support workers for. If they were to cut his job or his department further, he said, “people are going to have to step up and clean things themselves.”
California Service Employees Association President Mamie Kristovich told the board Tuesday night “it is obvious that the district does not understand that CSEA classified employees are the backbone of this district.”
She said these “unconscionable” cuts will help to “cripple” students’ learning and urged the district to start “pausing all unnecessary spending,” including hiring outside consultants and raises for district officials.
“Cutting these positions is more than a budgetary decision,” Kristovich said. “It is a threat to the very foundation of students’ success.”
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