Coachella Valley Unified Moves Forward With Layoffs

The Coachella Valley Unified School District Board of Education last week voted to move forward with the layoff of 42 certificated employees in accordance with Administrative Law Judge Kimberly J. Belvedere’s proposed decision.

The May 1 proposed decision found that the district’s decision to reduce its workforce and restructure the visual and performing arts program was “warranted due to the district’s financial situation.”

“The reduction and discontinuation of services was related to the welfare of the district and its pupils, and it became necessary to decrease the number of certificated employees as determined by the board,” Belvedere wrote in her proposed decision. “No particular kinds of services were lowered to levels less than those levels mandated by state or federal law.”

Back in February, the board adopted a resolution reducing or eliminating particular kinds of certificated services for the upcoming school year, including 48 total non-management certificated full-time equivalents and 12 total management certificated full-time equivalents, impacting a total of 110 certificated employees. 

As part of that resolution, the district said it would deviate from the normal order of layoffs for those who had special training and experience that more senior certificated employees did not have, also known as skipping. The resolution also laid out the specific criteria for skipping and established tiebreaking criteria for employees.

Following the adoption of the resolution, the district notified the impacted employees that they would be laid off. The district subsequently rescinded 17 layoff notifications.

Belvedere found that there was “no evidence established that the district’s skipping criteria was arbitrary or capricious or that the district made any errors with respect to the application of the skipping criteria.”

Under the skipping criteria, 41 certificated employees were eligible to retain their positions and another seven were eligible to bump more junior employees. Of those seven, three chose the layoff.

“The district noted that making the decision to lay off teachers is never easy, but the district has a duty to remain fiscally solvent,” Belvedere wrote in her proposed decision, noting that the district followed all applicable procedures and minimized the number of layoffs. “If the reduction in force is not permitted, the district will become insolvent.”

Impacted certificated employees who testified during the administrative hearing described “a frustration with the district’s fiscal situation,” and showed a true dedication to their work, the district and the students, Belvedere wrote.

Belvedere said those who testified said that the way in which the district was being managed was not in the best interest of the students or the teachers, but she found that the district had acted in accordance with applicable law and policies and recommended that by May 15 the board give notice to the 47 certificated employees listed in the proposed decision that their employment would be terminated at the end of the current school year.

While the proposed decision included 47 certificated employees, the board’s final resolution named 42 who would be receiving final layoff notices from the district.

Those who spoke at the meeting urged the district to meet the fiscal challenges of the moment with solutions that prioritize students.

“Students are always the first to feel the impact, the relationships, the support, the consistency we build with them, those are often the first things lost,” Jose Galvez Acuña, a behavioral support paraeducator, said at the May 8 special meeting. “That’s why it’s so important that, as a district, as two unions and as a community, we come together to find solutions, because at the end of the day, our number one priority must remain, and has always been, our students.”