Coalinga-Huron school district avoids teacher layoffs

A special meeting scheduled for Tuesday at the Coalinga-Huron Unified School District to discuss potential layoffs has been canceled.

Superintendent Helen Foster said last week that the district, which enrolls about 4,500 students, was considering layoffs because of an unexpected budget deficit that could total $3 million. But on Tuesday, Lori Villanueva, assistant superintendent of educational services, said the district had found one-time money to avoid laying off 14 teachers. “We had $750,000 sitting in a repair-the-high-school-stadium fund,” she said.

A notice posted on the district’s website said: “At the direction of the board, the district staff has made efforts to arrive at creative solutions to the projected revenue shortfalls for 2017-18. We are pleased to announce that we were able to identify some creative solutions through the application of some one-time money and other cost-saving measures to eliminate the need for layoffs.”

In a news release Tuesday, the Coalinga-Huron Unified Teachers Association said teachers had met with the district about a proposal to lay off up to 31 teachers and that both sides agreed none of the proposed layoffs would occur. “We did our homework,” said teachers’ bargaining chairman Jason McFarlin.

Villanueva said only 14 teachers faced potential layoffs. Another 17 provisional teachers will not be returning either because they do not have a teaching credential or because their teaching does not meet standards. “Those people won’t come back regardless,” she said. “It was really 14 looking at layoffs.”

This story was originally published March 7, 2017 at 2:10 PM with the headline "Coalinga-Huron school district avoids teacher layoffs."