Long Beach School Board May Cut 300 Positions

The Long Beach Unified School District, the city's largest employer, may be forced to cut an additional 300 positions to make its budget, the district said Tuesday.

Hit by continuing state budget shortfalls, the nationally recognized school district has already cut hundreds of millions and closed schools in an attempt to meet its bills and remain solvent.

The district, which laid off more than 800 teachers last year, has had to cut substantially nine of the past years, noted LBUSD spokesman Chris Eftychiou. Long Beach Unified is California's third largest school district, with more than 80,000 students in K-12.

Under the best of circumstances, Long Beach Unified may lose $19 million in state funds under Governor Jerry Brown's budget, LBUSD estimates. To only lose that much would require passage of a November statewide ballot initiative for a temporary half-cent sales tax to avoid drastic education cuts, backers say.

But the worst-case scenario must be approved by the school board and in place should the ballot measure not be approved. That's because the law requires advance lay-off notices that would fall in mid-March, well before the election. Which is what tonight's meeting would set in motion.

The roughly 300 positions are called full-time equivalent, and more than 100 of the teaching jobs are contract positions. The Press Telegram reported that the cuts will particularly hit the Head Start program.

The school board meeting start at 5 p.m. on the first floor of district headquarters, located at 1515 Hughes Way, Long Beach.