“We want everybody and anybody who’s interested in saving adult education to show up,” Miller said. “This is going to be an important meeting. We’re going to discuss the future of adult education and see what happens. We’re still hoping to save the entire program, but everything is up in the air at the moment. Nothing has been set in stone.”
The board is scheduled to finalize 242 districtwide layoffs by mid-May after a second administrative hearing for several dozen teachers whose jobs are slated to be cut, said Kimberly Claytor, president of the Newport-Mesa Federation of Teachers.
Of that total, roughly 45 teachers, both part and full time, work in adult education, which teaches English-learning classes to Latino immigrants who live on Costa Mesa’s Westside and have come to rely on the program as a way of learning English.
An administrative judge is set to hear the last of the pending cases, Claytor said, and the purpose of the hearing is to decide who qualifies for seniority and whether there are misunderstandings in terms of their starting dates.
In making the layoffs, many of the teachers whose jobs will be terminated are relatively new and are elementary school teachers, Claytor said, adding that the level of seniority figures in to who is going to be laid off.
The district, like many school districts across California, is reeling from budget cuts that have trickled down from state, which has decided to withhold what is called “categorical funding” from the districts.
Part of the categorical funding traditionally has gone to adult education.
Many school districts statewide are axing adult education programs to focus on so called K-12 “core” missions. The decision is an affront to many who work in the circles of adult education.
“It’s good that the district is trying to reinstate some of the classes,” Miller said. “But it would be nice if the district reinstated all of the classes.”
