In a last-minute and somewhat shocking reversal of a budget-cutting measure, the San Francisco Unified School District reversed the impending layoffs of 34 school counselors and 117 paraeducators, including instructional aides, student and family resource personnel, security aides, and other staffing personnel.
School district employees had received preliminary termination notices in late February and March in a cost-cutting bid to cover the SFUSDโs $114 million deficit. Very few expected a reprieve.
But the school district issued a press release at 3:06 p.m. on Friday, announcing that โthe San Francisco Board of Education, San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) Superintendent Dr. Maria Su, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond have worked together to confirm funding that allows the district to cancel final layoff notices for 34 counselors and 117 paraeducators.โ
This is in addition to funding that allows the school district to hire 77 more teachers for the next school year than previously allowed by the state.
โThanks to the hard work and collaboration with the state and our labor partners, we are thrilled to be able to restore essential positions that support our students and schools,โ said Su, who was brought into the district in a specific effort to balance its budget. Up until this point, she had maintained that the district had no choice but to cut these 160 positions in spite of very vocal opposition by other teachers, paraeducators, families and students.
The state-appointed fiscal advisor overseeing district hiring, Elliott Duchon, approved the school budgets and positions allocated after union members demanded the positions be retained at a school board meeting earlier this week, on Tuesday.
Teanna Tillery, the vice-president for paraeducators in the teachers union, the United Educators of San Francisco, credited the change in course to โcontinued advocacy and fighting โ you know, it matters.โ
She cited the events of the most recent school board meeting, when dozens of paraeducators, teachers, students, and family members spoke on the effect that paraeducators and counselors have on students. Paraeducators are a necessity to schools and students, they said; not a luxury they can simply do without.
โThe people who needed to hear what we had to say were there,โ Tillery said. Specifically, that meant the state-appointed fiscal advisor, Duchon, who was tapped to make hard financial decisions for SFUSD. โFrom that meeting up until recently, he sat and worked with HR and the SFUSD to make this happen.โ
Duchon was assigned as a financial advisor to the SFUSD in November 2021 by the California Department of Public Education. As the state appointee, he has the authority to unilaterally reject board-approved spending measures. His name was often mentioned in the fight to retain paraeducators and counselors as the one who could make or break their employment.
The relief was evident in Tilleryโs voice, even though there is still work ahead to determine which paraeducators get placed where (employment in the SFUSD is based on seniority, so many paraeducators will be shuffled around rather than returning to the same schools), and where to place the paraeducators whose layoffs will not be rescinded.
โThis is still a huge win right now,โ she said.
A version of this story was first published on El Tecolote.
‘What is meant by “..where to place the paraeducators whose layoffs will not be rescinded”? Does this refer to Naturalists? We need naturalists right where they are, at Fort Funston–to instill a love for and understanding of our natural world that sustains us.
Naturalists also keep students safe, so they don’t fall over a cliff or eat the wrong plant!
Many SFUSD staff get laid off and rehired EVERY year.
The surprise here is that after devastating misnanagement over the last decade, that these layoffs were not permanent.
we are going to have the same old next year about this time. they are going to ask for an assessment tax on property owners, same old. Its been like this for the past 50 years. Too many ppl downtown and never enough ppl at the schools for support.
Sigh. I like to argue that the Democrats are the fiscally responsible party, but San Francisco makes that argument difficult.