The Hollister School District Board of Trustees last week
delayed a decision to cut $920,000 from its classified staff
budget, which includes reductions for libraries, custodians and
special education support.
The Hollister School District Board of Trustees last week delayed a decision to cut $920,000 from its classified staff budget, which includes reductions for libraries, custodians and special education support.
Instead the decision will be made during the May 11 meeting at the district office at 2690 Cienega Road.
“They haven’t made a decision on what their cuts are going to be,” district Director of Instruction Anita Franchi said. “It will come on the 11th.”
Under the April 27 proposal, the district’s cuts would affect 37 positions throughout the school district in efforts to cut $6.5 million dollars.
School district officials already have handed out pink slips to 80 teachers and 15 administrators in efforts to cut $6.5 million from next year’s budget.
Classified union representative Diane Smith, a library technician at Rancho San Justo Middle School, noted how the proposed cuts to classified include an array of cutbacks to hours for many employees, such as administrative assistants and school campus monitors. But perhaps the biggest hits would occur to the libraries and special education programs.
Under the plan, there would be seven of eight library supervisors and six of seven library technicians, Smith said.
“They’re very drastic because the problem is, all of these cuts have a direct impact on the student population,” Smith has said.
She said union leaders over the past several months have suggested other cuts to examine, such as to the sports program, transportation and other smaller areas such as eliminating cell phones and mileage stipends for many of the employees.
