Pomona Unified Rallies Against Education Cuts

Local teachers' unions are already starting to campaign hard for the tax revenue that they say could save their jobs, before the measure has even made the ballot.

The Sacramento Bee reported Thursday that legislators will hash out the details of budget cuts before considering the special election tax proposal, but the Associated Pomona Teachers (APT) union is already organizing support in a district where the picture is potentially grim.

The district approved preliminary layoff notices for 272 full-time employees — including 73 elementary teachers — and an additional 159 part-time and substitute teachers on Feb. 22, when the district also approved its formal support for a tax measure to go to a special election.

"Unfortunately, we find ourselves in the position where we we don't have the news yet on what we truly need to cut and we do know that we need to prepare for the worst," Superintendent Richard Martinez said at an APT rally Wednesday afternoon.

If state legislators approve putting the tax measure on a special election ballot for June, the district's budget will then hang in the hands of the voters. Still, the results of that vote won't come in time for a May 15 deadline to issue final layoff notices to teachers.

But Martinez said the tax extension vote would still help to cut the number of layoffs issued on Feb. 22.

"I'm hoping the Legislature allows us those flexibilities so that the reductions we're asking for now won't be the high number that you see," Martinez said.

The state taxes in question are set to expire this year. If left to expire, PUSD would be required to cut a total of $46 million from its budget over the next two years, according to the district's chief financial officer, Leslie Barnes. That would ultimately mean cutting $349 per student, according to a report Barnes prepared for the board.

If the taxes are extended, Barnes said, the district would look to cut $26.5 million from its budget for the coming year, an overall cut of $19 per student.

"Our community cannot survive and thrive when future of neighborhood schools threatened by more cuts," APT President Tyra Rose Weis said at a school board meeting on March 9.

At Wednesday's afternoon rally, Weis said that "the health of California's public schools depends on stable tax revenues."

Lorbeer and Golden Springs parent Frank Guzman spoke to the crowd Wednesday, urging supporters to go directly to top elected officials to advocate for passage of the tax extensions.

"Whenever a president or governor is elected, they say that education is going to be a number one priority," Guzman said, "but they need to show us that it's going to be a number one priority."

According to a Field Poll released Wednesday, 61 percent of registered voters said they support a special election on taxes, but such approval would still leave a long fight for school districts and educators.

District CFO Leslie Barnes said during a February meeting that "education would be the only reason these taxes would be approved."

"And I think that's why they would put us in this position," Barnes said.