The Paso Robles Joint Unified School District is close to handing out notices to employees facing cuts due to a $4.9 million budget deficit. According to Superintendent Jennifer Loftus, the district offered up a specific plan to help reduce the number of jobs lost and it's worked.
Current eligible teachers who were close to retiring were offered a supplemental retirement plan. Rather than retire in a few years, the offer is to retire now at near your current wage.
“The offer to us to retire was a very good deal," speech and language pathologist Bernadette Boddington said. "They offered us, 85% of our salary, and that would affect the people that are at the top of the salary scale so it's not like a one lump sum payment. We'll be getting an annuity.”
According to the speech pathologist, 32 educators accepted the early retirement plan, including herself.
“Our hope was we would be able to incentivize people who were close to retirement to go ahead and make that choice this year, as opposed to waiting a year or two," Loftus said.
Boddington, a member of the union who regularly attends board meetings, says they’re estimating 19 cuts that involve paraprofessional educators, and behavior support like counselors, custodians, and librarians.
According to Loftus, the district had been hiring additional staff over the last couple of years despite the declining enrollment while using one-time funds during COVID-19.
“While we're making a lot of reductions, most people will find a place that they'll be able to work," Loftus said of the cuts. "It may not be in the same position, but it will still be with the district if that's what they desire to do.”
Loftus says they're trying to make up the additional $2.2 million left over from the cuts through Transitional Kindergarten (TK) to offset declining enrollment.
“Starting next school year, any child who's 4 years old is eligible to have TK," the superintendent said. "In our school district, we're going to be offering a full-day TK program — and that's very attractive to parents."
The school board will continue to talk about the reduction of class sizes at Tuesday night's board meeting. Those whose jobs will be impacted will be notified by March 15.
