UNION EDUCATORS are organizing to fight back against more than 3,000 layoffs in school districts across the state that will hurt our students, schools and communities at a time when they need our help and support.

“Layoffs are devastating and chaotic to our school communities and harm student learning conditions,” said CTA President David Goldberg. “This is even happening in communities like Pasadena, where educators and students lost their homes in wildfires. Our union will not stand by. We will demand that every single one of these notices is rescinded in the coming weeks.”

United Teachers of Pasadena have been fighting to get some of their 115 layoffs rescinded — the fifth highest number issued by a district in the state. San Francisco Unified School District issued the most credentialed layoff notices — 395 — which have all been rescinded after an early retirement incentive program proved more popular than expected.

We checked in with the presidents of two CTA locals, Santa Barbara Teachers Association (SBTA) and Santa Ana Educators Association (SAEA) who have been organizing to fight layoffs of their members.

Sonta Garner-Marcelo

Santa Ana Educators Association
When 389 SAEA educators received layoff notices, members organized and fought back — holding a series of rallies at impacted sites. Some schools are slated to lose more than half their educators. SAEA President Sonta Garner-Marcelo says members sprang into action to support each other, attending school board meetings along with students, parents and Orange County Labor Federation siblings to call on elected leaders to reverse course. SAEA held rallies at each school board meeting this spring and is circulating a petition of support for educators and resources for Santa Ana students.

“We have also been educating our parents about the budget and explaining what these layoffs will mean to our students and the SAUSD community,” says Garner-Marcelo. “Losing positions that positively impact our students and programs will result in increased class sizes, lack of support and pushing students and families to other school districts.”

Q: What are your plans for the rest of the school year, and looking ahead to the next?

Sonta Garner-Marcelo: SAEA will continue to turn out for each board meeting, educate our members, visit sites and have conversations with parents and our community. We will also provide information about SAEA at local community events until the layoffs are rescinded and continue to collaborate with our district to work on solutions that will not hurt our students, educators and community.

Q: How can your fellow CTA members support your fight to save jobs and the resources Santa Ana students need?

SGM: CTA members can sign and continue to share our No Layoffs petition, which is available at cta.org/FFSA.

Q: What would you like to say to locals across the state about organizing to fight educator layoffs?

SGM: Now more than ever, we need to harness the power of our union. There is power in our connections and our commitments to each other. We can advocate for our students, professions and each other by standing united. We can’t wait! Together in solidarity and strength, let’s engage in these conversations, strategize our next steps
and mobilize our communities. We are one! We need to support and defend each other and the schools that our students deserve.

Hozby Galindo

Santa Barbara Teachers Association
SBTA started fighting the 79 layoffs they faced this year before they even existed — by establishing a Political Action Committee (PAC) and taking an active role in last year’s school board elections. After successful campaigns to elect district trustees, SBTA President Hozby Galindo says it’s been crucial to leverage their relationships to save as many jobs as possible.

“We do not currently have a majority on school board but with our successful campaign, we were able to force the district to rewrite their layoff proposal. They were going to lay off more people,” Galindo says. “Right there on the spot, more jobs were saved before they voted on it. There’s a lot of power in a PAC changing the makeup of a
school board.”

Santa Barbara High School students, whose theater teacher received a RIF notice, were expected to perform at the district school board in April. Instead, they stood in silence for minutes before unfolding a sign that said, “If you defund the arts, there won’t be any.” The notice was later rescinded.

After a lengthy school board meeting that went until 3 a.m., where SBTA members, students and community unsuccessfully pleaded with the board to not lay off teachers, SBTA has been a constant presence at meetings to call for rescinding those layoffs. So far, they have been successful in rescinding all but 10.

“We’re working all the way up to the May deadline for the RIF (Reduction in Force) finalization and then into the summer to support our impacted members,” Galindo says. “We’re trying to organize in every space that we can to get our message out and save positions in any manner possible.”

Q: What would these layoffs mean for your students and school communities?

Galindo: Our district has been struggling to fill elective positions in our elementary spaces. Last year, our high schools didn’t have enough foreign language teachers, so students were forced to learn online. We’re hurting our students and how we’re preparing them for their future. We’re not preparing them to be a part of a global economy. These layoffs are going to exacerbate the inequity that some elementary and secondary students face. If we can’t offer students electives, we’re just hurting them in the long run. The district is trying to save costs by increasing class sizes and that’s just going to hurt students currently and in the future — we shouldn’t be doing that.

Q: What are your plans for the rest of the school year and looking ahead to the next?

G: Reaching out to parent groups because these layoffs will be affecting their students. We’re also contacting Parent Teacher Associations across our school sites. Our membership should have noticed now that the work we did with our PAC bore some really good
fruit. Our next steps will be to once more have our PAC build campaigns to fill open positions on our school board — and we’re going to start that work next year.

Q: What advice do you have for members in other locals on organizing to fight educator layoffs?

G: I don’t think anybody understood how important it was going to be to elect our candidate to the school board. All locals should consider and think about how they work to structure their school board. You can fight RIFs before they even begin if you have the right
people on your school board.

Also, bring in the community and share your thoughts with board members about how students will be hurt, through public comment, emails and on social media. Share news and effects of layoffs with your community to let them know what is going on in the school
district and how their students will be impacted. Flood meetings where financial and programming decisions are being made. Make sure you are sharing that narrative of how students get hurt if positions are eliminated.

Top photo caption: SAEA members protest the proposed layoffs.