Live Oak School District to attempt another vote on layoffs Tuesday, with new cuts to admin jobs

Live Oak School District’s governing board will attempt another vote on a series of layoffs at a special meeting Tuesday night, including a revised plan to cut several administrative positions after angry parents and teachers urged the board not to fix its budget crisis on the backs of classroom workers.

The new proposal has a total of 44.32 full-time-equivalent layoffs compared to the first drafted list of layoffs, which had a total of 37.8 full-time-equivalent layoffs. Included in the totals are two preschool teachers, but district officials say the teachers will be rehired once the district receives expected funding from the state specifically for early education.

The new cuts include several district-level positions – as parents and teachers had demanded – such as a fiscal services director and an information technology director. 

The County Office of Education warned Live Oak School District in January that it would not meet its financial obligations in 2024-25 and future fiscal years if it didn’t make significant cuts. Since then, Superintendent Daisy Morales and her district staff have drafted a stabilization plan with proposed layoffs that include one school psychologist, seven elementary teachers, custodians, aides and some district office workers. 

Last week, the board was scheduled to vote on the layoffs in order to make a state-mandated March 15 deadline to help alleviate its budget crisis, but no members of the district’s board seconded board president Kristin Pfotenhauer’s motion to call a vote. 

The board scheduled a special meeting to vote on the layoffs for Tuesday, and Pfotenhauer said a second special meeting will be held Thursday at 7 p.m. to discuss a new version of the district’s budget stabilization plan. She added that the board will likely have another meeting next Wednesday to vote on approving a final stabilization plan ahead of that March 15 deadline to submit to the County Office of Education. 

Shoreline Middle School teacher Jeremy Powell said that although the teachers union is “encouraged” by the new district-level cuts, he and others are still surprised by the additional cuts to people who work closely with students, such as instructional aides. 

“I would assume that at least as a public relations move that they would make some kind of token sacrifice, [like] furlough days at the district office,” he said. “But further increased cuts at classified employees, and to some extent certificated employees, it’s just showing how they’re just not seeing the big picture.” 

Melissa Rosenoff, one of the district’s three school psychologists, said all of the cuts will be unsettling and detrimental to the community. 

“There is a shortage of school psychologists now with ever-increasing needs, so one fewer psychologist in our district would be devastating,” she said. 

Parent Casey Curtiss has two children attending Live Oak Elementary School – a 6-year-old daughter in first grade and a 5-year-old son in transitional kindergarten. He said his family is devastated by the proposed cuts, as his children will see people they love lose their jobs. 

“It’s going to have a very large impact on our kids,” he said. “That’s the big take-home for all of this.” 

He said he and other parents are still trying to grasp how such drastic measures are being taken when they’ve just learned about the district’s financial struggles recently. 

“It’s like an 11th-hour scramble to try to figure out how to make things work,” he said. “There was no strategy to kind of phase out the funding that [the district] knew wasn’t going to be a permanent fixture. And now the people that are going to take the hardest hit are going to be our kids.”

Pfotenhauer said the new version of layoffs have additional cuts because the initial plan didn’t take into account an additional $500,000 deficit – which was discussed at last Wednesday’s meeting. The additional $500,000 deficit is from the state’s reduced funding allocation, she said. 

The new cuts include several district office positions such as an administrative secretary, an expanded learning opportunities coordinator and a confidential human resources specialist, according to Pfotenhauer. 

She said she didn’t have a finalized percentage of how many of the cuts are now to district-level staff, but that senior administrators and board members heard the demands from the community about making more cuts to the district office. 

“We have been clearly hearing people and trying to look at what might be done differently to hear people’s requests,” she said. “We are trying to respond to what has been shared with us from staff and parents.” 

Additional new cuts include five family liaisons, but Pfotenhauer said the board hopes to rehire all of those positions if the district gets grant funding from the state’s Community Schools program. 

Each school site, including the alternative education school, has one family liaison. Powell said they play important roles at schools by welcoming families in front offices and checking in with families whose students are missing school. The liaisons are bilingual, he said, and often help communicate with parents and guardians who are new to the education system. 

“We’re hopeful to hear about that in May and hopefully rescind” the layoff notices, Pfotenhauer said.

The new version of the proposed layoffs includes additional cuts to reading and math instructional aides and three part-time recess coaches. 

Pfotenhauer added that the parent and community forum will take place at 6 p.m. Thursday, just before the special board meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. 

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