New Haven School District Staff to Shrink Soon

By Grace Rauh, STAFF WRITER

UNION CITY — The New Haven school district’s student body is shrinking, and come summer, its staff will be shrinking too.

Earlier this week the school board approved the elimination of 32 full-time positions by the start of the next school year, linking the cuts to the steady decline in enrollment that has plagued the district for the past decade.

It is possible that at least a few New Haven staff members without a teaching certificate will be fired at the end of the school year.

District officials have said they won’t lay off teachers and administrators to make the employment cuts this year. Instead, they will not fill many, if not all, teaching and administrative positions vacated at the end of the school year by staff who have chosen to retire or resign.

It is estimated that nearly 22 full-time teaching and administrative positions will be cut, in addition to 11 classified positions, which include clerical staff and maintenance workers.

Although slashing staffing levels by more than 30 full-time employees is a cost-saving measure for the district, more changes related to the district’s smaller student body are likely.

The board approved the cuts by a

4-1 vote, with board member Gwen Estes in dissent.

A school board workshop to address New Haven’s declining enrollment will begin at 6 p.m. today in the New Haven board room. District officials already have planned three more community and employee meetings to discuss ways in which the school district can adapt to a smaller student body. Options to be discussed include closing schools, cutting transportation routes, moving administrators into new positions and examining school boundaries.

“People should be attending these meetings to hear all of the options that are out there,” said Charmaine Kawaguchi, president of the New Haven Teachers Association. “If we decline 200 students a year for the next five years, some things are going to have to happen. … We have time, so let’s talk about it.”

Enrollment in the school district has dropped during the past decade, with an average of 200 fewer students showing up for class each fall compared with the previous year. The school district receives about $5,400 to educate each New Haven student. Declining enrollment has meant that there is less money to pay for teachers, administrators and other staff.

School district Superintendent Pat Jaurequi has said there are so many empty classrooms in New Haven schools that if two elementary schools and one middle school were closed, other New Haven campuses would have adequate space for those displaced students.

In addition to tonight’s board workshop, the district will hold community and employee forums to discuss declining enrollment. The employee meetings will be held from 4 to 6 p.m., with the community meetings to follow, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., on March 20, 23 and 27 in the district office, 34200 Alvarado-Niles Road.

Staff writer Grace Rauh can be reached at (510) 353-7010.