Top Takeaways
- The reduction is part of L.A. Unified’s Fiscal Stabilization Plan to save around $250 million.
- The district expects significant staff attrition and said that some notices may be rescinded.
- LAUSD is in a unique position, having hired more than 6,000 people during the Covid-19 pandemic using one-time funds.
The Los Angeles Unified School District board voted Tuesday to approve a reduction-in-force plan that could send notices of a possible layoff to roughly 3,200 employees, administrators, central office and centrally funded positions, though roughly 650 layoffs are expected.
Employees, representing less than 1% of LAUSD’s roughly 83,000-person workforce, will be notified of pending layoffs on March 15, per state law, according to Tuesday’s board materials. Los Angeles is the second-largest school district in the country.
To a chorus of cheers and boos, the 4-3 decision comes amid the district’s financial difficulties, including a projected deficit of $877 million for the 2026-27 academic year and $443 million for the following year, according to board materials. The reduction in force is supposed to help save roughly $250 million as part of LAUSD’s Fiscal Stabilization Plan.
“Unfortunately, in some instances, the crisis is not a crisis that happened overnight, like a firestorm or a hurricane,” said Superintendent Alberto Carvalho during Tuesday’s board meeting. “Sometimes, these crises develop over time. They mature into a condition that becomes untenable, particularly as was discussed earlier, particularly within the context of legal requirements in the state of California.”
Districts across the state are grappling with similar budgetary challenges. But Carvalho said LAUSD is in a unique position because it hired more than 6,000 people during the Covid-19 pandemic using one-time money.
Carvalho also said LAUSD’s enrollment decline has outpaced the state’s. This academic year, Los Angeles Unified’s enrollment has dropped by more than 3% to 389,000.
That number, Carvalho said, was twice the projected enrollment decline — and has been exacerbated by immigration enforcement actions in Los Angeles.
“An organization built for 500,000 students that is only serving 400,000 students is too large,” said Michael Fine, the CEO of the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, which works with education agencies to ensure sustainable finances, in a statement to EdSource. “And the extra savings needed to offset the decline in revenue must come from other areas such as central office and ancillary services.”
The district has specifically authorized roughly 2,600 cuts to certificated and classified contract management employees and certificated administrators, as well as 657 central office and centrally funded classified positions, ranging from information technology employees to gardeners and interpreters.
Tuesday’s presentation noted that LAUSD also expects significant staff attrition and that some notices may be rescinded, while others who have been laid off may be able to return to the district as positions open.
United Teachers Los Angeles, which represents more than 35,000 district educators, claims that giving employees their jobs back after receiving a pink slip is part of LAUSD’s strategy to “bring the morale down so that the teachers will demand less from the districts,” said Julie Van Winkle, the union’s vice president.
UTLA has been in negotiations with LAUSD for roughly one year and recently voted to authorize a strike if an agreement isn’t reached.
Pointing to LAUSD’s $5 billion in reserves and unfilled positions, the unions have also stressed the impact of layoffs on district employees, nearly half of whom are housing insecure, according to a 2024 survey.
“It’s hard right now to be a teacher and to not even earn enough money to even be able to afford rent in the area near where you teach,” Van Winkle said, noting that teachers’ roles are especially important in the current political climate.
“The first thing they try to do is dismantle public education,” she said. “And so, this is a time when we should be standing up against that and forcing our district, and our city, and our state, and our country to do the right thing.”
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