LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – This past week marked the annual deadline for teacher layoff notices to go out across the state and the county.

California Education Code requires school boards issue preliminary pink slips by March 15, and then make the final decision on layoffs by May 15, according to the California Department of Education.

The California Teachers Association said preliminary pink slip data showed that 19,500 layoff notices were issued across 206 school districts on Thursday.

In Lake County, 25 of the notices were handed out to teachers this week, according to a Lake County Office of Education tally.

That total includes seven layoffs in the Lake County Office of Education’s schools; Konocti Unified School District, seven; Kelseyville Unified School District, six; Middletown Unified School District, four; and Lakeport Unified School District, one.

No layoff notices were issued in the Lucerne Elementary School District and the Upper Lake Union Elementary School District, the Lake County Office of Education reported.

“The numbers don’t look as severe as in the past because there’s no more room to cut,” said Lake County Superintendent of Schools Superintendent Wally Holbrook.

He said any further cuts to the county’s teacher numbers would significantly affect class size.

“We can’t cram 100 students in a classroom,” Holbrook said.

Middletown Unified Superintendent Dr. Korby Olson said of his district’s four notices, two are due to projected project enrollment, one is due to a teacher returning from leave and one is related to a possible program cut.

“So we really only did one that was due to a budget cut,” he said, adding that they may be able to restore that position once they know more about next year’s enrollment, particularly kindergarten student numbers.

He said Middletown Unified ended the 2010-11 school year with a strong fund balance, with cuts not as serious as projected. However, with state revenue numbers not as high as anticipated, more cuts could be ahead. Olson said the district has enough reserves to get by for now.

Middletown, like other county districts, has faced declining enrollment issues in recent years, which Olson attributes to the drop in jobs.

“We were really doing well based on the building of new homes and the growth in real estate,” he said, but when the market collapsed the district felt it as well.

Olson said he doesn’t believe Middletown Unified was hit harder than other county districts, but that it felt the impact at a different time.

Holbrook said Lake County’s educators have to plan for the worst in the face of more potential cuts, and that teachers often have to wait while those details are worked out.

“If we don’t get a clear picture of what the budget is going to be, we have to continue to act as if the cuts are going to take place,” which he said leads to the preliminary layoff notices, the numbers of which usually are higher than the final tally.

The California Teachers Association reported that the 10 California school districts issuing the most layoff notices are: Los Angeles Unified, about 9,500; San Diego Unified, more than 1,608; San Juan Unified, 458; Capistrano Unified, 392; Sacramento City Unified, 389; Moreno Valley Unified, 332; Long Beach Unified, 309; San Bernardino City School District, 251; San Francisco Unified, 210; Sweetwater High School District, 209.
                                 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said every pink slip being issued Thursday “is an unwelcome and undeserved blow to the morale of the teacher who receives it. They should also remind all of us of the urgency of finding the will and the resources to end the financial emergency facing our public schools."

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