Education: The Next Victim of the Budget Crisis?

Folsom Cordova Unified School District could face layoffs due to a possible nine percent reduction in funding to public education.

The school district would need to cut spending by $10.5 million, and that may include jobs within the district. A notice on the budget section of the FCUSD website suggests that cuts to employment are a definite possibility. However, the cuts will most likely begin in administrative areas and positions before reductions in other positions, according to the budget website.

“We know that we have to prepare for reductions in services for the coming year(s), but the lack of direction from the state compounds the problem,” said Superintendent Patrick Godwin in a written message regarding the budget crisis.

The San Juan Unified School District is also facing problems regarding the budget.

“I think that you’ll find this across all of the districts,” said Trent Allen of the San Juan Unified School District.

A list of important dates is available on the budget portion of the FCUSD website sites that March 13, 2009 is the legal deadline for the delivery of layoff notices to certificated employees of Folsom Cordova schools. The timeline also includes deadlines for notice of classified employees as well as an anticipated approval of the budget preliminary dated June 18, 2009.

For now all that the district can do is wait for funding and a resolution to the state budget stalemate.

No one from the Folsom Cordova Unified School District was available for comment.