California

Group Calls For Resignations Over Compton Teacher Layoff Plans

School board says loss of state funding, not mismanagement, has led to a budget shortfall.

It’s an issue nearly every school district is facing – state funds have ended for a certain school program and districts are looking to make cuts to staff. But in Compton, a local community group says they feel cheated in the way its school board is taking action.

"We’re looking at 80 teachers that are being laid off at the end of the school year," says Francisco Orozco, head of the Compton Democratic Club, which staged a small protest outside Wednesday night’s regular board meeting.

"We’ve had years of inefficient local government and this government hasn’t done its job so it’s time for them to go," Orozco says. "We want them gone."

The group is asking for every member of the Compton Unified Board of Trustees, as well as the superintendent, to step down and resign. However, there could be an added benefit for Orozco if that were to happen – he confirms with NBC4 that he plans to run for a seat on the board in the November 2015 election.

Orozco denies that has anything to do with his group’s requests, though, saying he gathered signatures from 400 community members and teachers asking the Board to step aside.

In a statement from Compton Unified Superintendent Darin Brawley, the district calls the layoffs a "California problem." Brawley says state funding for the Quality Education Investment Act has been eliminated from the state budget and he says that is why school districts statewide are left to layoff teachers to reduce expenses that are tied to that funding.

"In Compton we are proud that we were able to reduce the number of layoffs by 60 teaching positions through our Local Control Accountability Plan, budget cuts and reassignments," Brawley said in his statement. "Compton schools are improving, graduation rates are increasing, test scores are up and just this week two Dominguez High School students were named Gates Millennium Scholars."

The District says the focus of displeasure should be redefined and pointed toward Sacramento. "As a community we should be honoring our achievements and working together to increase state funding for education so we can restore these jobs," Brawley says in his statement.

Orozco says the board is keeping the community in the dark, though, claiming it could have allocated funds differently years ago.

"They knew for over six years that these cuts were coming and they did not reallocate funds," he says.

Board President Micah Ali says any protest against the board is unwarranted.

"This is not unique to Compton," he says. "There’s no school board in Los Angeles County that wants to lay off teachers. The issue of teacher layoffs is a California issue."

Ali has been the target of the Compton Democratic Club in the past, with blog posts taking up much of the group’s website. Ali is also up for re-election in November.

"We are not in the business of laying off teachers, we’re in the business of employing folk to educate our children within this community," he says. "And it’s an issue that should be underscored and send a message to Sacramento that we need more money and we need it now."

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