Irvine Unified releases names of staff facing layoffs

IRVINE - Irvine Unified officials on Monday released the names of the 250 temporary teachers and other educators who where notified in March that they could lose their jobs as part of an effort to trim $16 million from the district's budget.

Besides teachers, the list includes counselors, nurses, language specialists and a librarian. The staff cuts come from most of the district's 34 schools. The staff all worked on temporary contracts. No permanent certificated personnel received layoff notices.

The information was released after a public records request from the Orange County Register.

Irvine Unified spokesman Ian Hanigan said the district may eventually rehire many of the teachers and staff next year. But that would depend on how the state budget crisis eventually unfolds, he said.

In January, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed suspending Proposition 98, the California law that provides a guaranteed source of funding to public schools. Under the governor's plan, k-12 schools would receive about $4 billion less in funding than they were entitled to get.

District officials said they still plan to look at other potential cuts in coming weeks. They include increasing class sizes in the third and ninth grades, cutting special education and reducing the length of fourth- and fifth-grade science classes.