San Francisco school board to OK hundreds of job cuts

SAN FRANCISCO - The San Francisco Unified District school board is expected on Tuesday to approve hundreds of job cuts as part of the district's ongoing effort to cut a $114-million dollar budget deficit.

Paraeducators, counselors and even teachers could lose their jobs, as hundreds of SFUSD workers are expected to get preliminary layoff notices in the next few weeks.

The vote on Tuesday is to approve preliminary pink slips for as many as 830 workers.

The goal is to chip away at the deficit by June in order to keep the district solvent and avoid a state takeover.

The district has already appointed a state-appointed fiscal advisor with veto and approval power over all its budget decisions.

Meredith Doddson, executive director of SF Parent Coalition, said these pink slips are something that school districts always do, but she's concerned about how many they're proposing.

"The sheer number," she said. "And there's a lot of questions about why is it so high. Where is it coming from? Is this what we need to do? Is this too many..? How do we know our kids are going to be OK?"