You're fired

"You are hereby notified that it has been recommended to the Board of Trustees of the district that you be given notice that your services will not be required for the ensuing 2009-2010 school year."

Yikes!

Due to the current shortfall in my district's projected budget for the next year and the uncertainty of the pending solution to the current statewide budget crisis, my district had to lay-off 45 teachers out of our tiny 9 school (elementary and middle) school district in Huntington Beach.

I will MOST LIKELY get my same job back because I am higher on the seniority list and my district is overly conservative, but getting a RIF note (pink slip) after 5 years of teaching and being tenured is a bit scary and not a fun way to end the day. My principal felt horrible doing it and it is not job performance, but needed because of the crisis of California. I along with 45 (not counting the newest teachers who were temporary teachers) qualified and NEEDED educators got this note today. We are in a strong union and have the CTA and HBETA to support us if it were to get ugly with court proceedings.

My school attended the school board meeting last night and it looks so bleak for the state of California, not just for teachers, although we are the most affected in budget cuts, but for everyone.

A quick recap of California's economic situation:

*During the recession in the early 1990's (1990-1993) 624,000 jobs were lost....since last April Californians have lost 400,000 jobs

*Education is funded primarily from income tax and capital gains made by wealthy on the stock market. If people aren't working there is less income tax, and obviously the stock market is not making any profits.

*Some solutions could be an increase in vehicle license fees, $0.01 increase on sales tax, and dependent credit is reduced to $99 (thank God we get the tax break for being married now...ha ha)

*The early 1990's deficit took us 9 years to get repaid.....we are at a 13% deficit currently which is WAY bigger than the last deficit

*BIG ONE....
Education takes 40% of the state budget

Our state needs to cut $15 billion dollars

It is proposed to cut 9.3 BILLION dollars from education.....isn't that MORE than 40%????

Education is cut the most

Kind of sad to be a teacher in California right now. I know my job will be here next year through if nothing else retirements, but I am scared for all the new teachers and students studying to be teachers in college. It is such a bad situation for a LOT of people.