The Modesto Schools Announce Possibility of Layoffs

The Modesto City Schools recently made an announcement. The announcement was made to warn people about the possibility of many layoffs for the various child development programs, along with the possible layoffs of nearly 15 different teachers, a school nurse, and several counselors from both the elementary schools in the city as well as the high school. The associate superintendent for the human resources department of the Modesto City Schools, Craig Rydquist, was the person who made the announcement. A meeting was to be held at the beginning of the week in which talks about school layoffs will be made. Some of these layoffs will include preschool teachers amongst various other employees of the Modesto City Schools.

The superintendent for Modesto, Pam Able, says that changes are currently underway. Able hopes to not have to get rid of the programs but to instead work on restructuring them, especially with cuts that are being made to the funding for these programs. Able also spoke out about the pressure that the district is currently dealing with, especially when it comes down to doing what is in the best interest of the students along with being able to stick with the budgets that are being made. Able says that there is currently a lot of uncertainty about what will happen. However, she says that the main plan is to expect the worst and have a plan for the worst but also hop that the best will actually happen.

The Modesto Board president, Ruben Villalobos, says that he understand why layoffs should be made, especially with the funding cuts that are going on. However, he is hoping that some layoffs can and will be avoided because that is the last thing that the school board wants to have to deal with. They do not want to have to layoff hard working employees. In the meantime, Able says she is working on making negotiations right away. She wants to come to a negotiation with the teachers union as a way to figure out an agreement that the teachers would be willing to accept, especially when it comes down to the amount of money they receive each year and the types of benefits they receive as well.

Prior to the announcement being made, leaders of the Modesto Teachers Associate were unaware that there was a proposal for layoffs in the works. Instead, they believed that while some job cuts were going to be made in the preschool section, layoffs of teachers were not going to happen. In the e-mail announcement that came from Rydquist, he was clear that the number one reason that jobs were being cut was because of the lack of funding, especially for specific programs.