Groups of Long Beach Unified staff and parents are pressuring the school board to reverse layoffs and programming reductions that the district says are necessary to stabilize its budget.
For months, they have shown up at district meetings, gathered signatures and written to their elected officials. They’re imploring the school board to reconsider planned cuts to social workers, library staff, parent-support workers, nurses and teachers. This is unlikely to happen given the district’s $70 million deficit, declining enrollment and expiring pandemic relief funds, but petitioners say they feel compelled to highlight what students stand to lose when they’re gone.
School board meetings have become ground zero for this community organizing. School library staff members have consistently attended since December to speak against the cuts that eliminated 30 of the 55 centrally funded positions. Behind the scenes, they circulate their speeches in advance, sharing research and resources in an effort to cover as much ground as possible during the three minutes allotted for public comment.
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Even if the reductions go through as they’re scheduled to at the end of the school year, Jamie Vallianos, a teacher librarian at John Muir Academy, said she hopes this work increases pressure on the school board to make different choices next year and encourages others to “keep making noise.” Other teachers have told Vallianos they have been inspired to be more vocal because they’ve watched her and others step up to the podium so many times…