Following the sudden uncertainty of layoffs during the school year of 2023-2024, teachers and students in the Anaheim Union High School District (AUHSD) have combined their efforts to protect the education system.
In March 2024, high school students attending Cypress High School formed a united front to protect the teachers working in the district from losing their jobs. Students and teachers both participated in the Anaheim Secondary Teacher Association (ASTA) rallies, which were held at Kennedy High School, Walker Junior High School, Cypress High School, Oxford Academy, Ball Junior High School, Anaheim High School, Orangeview Junior High School, Western High School, Magnolia High School, Brookhurst Junior High School, Dale Junior High School, Loara High School, and South Junior High School. These rallies were organized to show support for the AUHSD teachers and reduce the number of Reduction in Force (RIF) notices, which rose to the astounding number of 119, before being reduced to zero. However, “temporary” teachers who have worked for too short a period of time to be guaranteed permanence and stability have been laid off.
Geoff Morganstern, the president of ASTA, the teacher union, met with several students from the district to share information about the layoff situation. An attendee of this meeting, Cypress junior Gavin Kim, shared the preventative measures which would be taken, as well as the solutions that were devised to take the past as a learning experience. Kim helped organize the efforts to protect the AUHSD teachers on behalf of Cypress High School students.
The total cost to keep the teachers is estimated at $2.5 million annually, rather than the previously discussed $54 million per year. When asked to expand on this, Morganstern said the $2.5 million is the cost of carrying the 17 teachers from last year. According to Morganstern, 107 of the 119 positions which received the RIF notices have been “eliminated through retirement, resignation, new positions [being] created, and the loss of temporary teachers.” “It would have cost $18 million to carry the entire 119 and the district must project out 3 years, and that’s how we get the $54 million.” He shared that “our hope is to reduce the number of teachers through retirements and new position[s] for next year, so there won’t be a need to carry over any teachers beyond the need for staffing under the current contract.”
As for the preventative measures that might be taken to limit the possibility of any “surprise” layoffs in the future, the district has laid out an initial three-year plan that was created after the layoffs were rescinded, as a way to budget out the short term. This three-year budget was created by the district to offset rescinding the RIF notices. To Kim’s understanding, the union and the Board of Trustees plan to hold meetings more frequently to stay on top of any issues in advance before they become too unmanageable.
Despite the chaos of the last few months, there have been no significant changes when it comes to community feedback. However, there are still places where the community can submit their feedback, including the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP), as well as through communities in schools. “The district and all the employee associations are meeting monthly on the Budget Stabilization Committee to work toward a financially stable district with no layoffs of any employee group.”
Based on current statistics and solutions, AUHSD teachers in most departments can feel secure in their occupations for approximately three years into the future. There is a school bond, known as the “Measure K,” which will be passed in November. Morganstern asserts that this “will also help since it would relieve pressure on the general budget for construction and maintenance costs.” The district may come up with more solutions during those three years which could help teachers feel safer in their positions without the threat of layoffs looming over them through budgeting issues.
