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School board votes to cut teaching position, will need to make $1.3-million in further cuts 

Student protesting placards

Students and community members showed up en-masse protesting the cuts.

–Students, parents, teachers and community members packed the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday night. Many attended the school board meeting in support of some Career Technical Education elective classes last night. Despite the enthusiastic students, the board voted to eliminate one position and a CTE pathway as well as cuts to classified employees.

Denise Conte is chair of the department of Career Technical Education. She says she was not happy with the way she learned one pathway has been eliminated. The teacher, Mike Whitman, learned about it when he saw the school board agenda. Trustee Chris Bausch responded, saying that the law does not allow the supervisor to tell the instructor that he or she may be out of a job.

Dr. James Brescia addressing attendees and the board from the lectern.

After working for one year teaching media courses at the high school, Whitman learned he may be let go. The board voted to make that cut and some other cuts to the classified employees’ sector. Those classified jobs are custodial, cafeteria workers and non-teaching positions.

There was also a preliminary discussion about closing Bauer Speck’s temporary campus on the Flamson Middle School grounds next year. The board also discussed eliminating high school courses in French, Advanced Placement Physics and Advanced Placement Calculus. One student who was recently honored for her perfect test scores in math and English spoke up for those AP courses. School officials say students can get those classes through Cuesta College. Another student started her speech to the board in French, then told the board that French is the official language in 29 countries. No final decision yet, but French may be phased out with the elimination next year of French One.

Joel Peterson and Joanne Sommers

Board members Joel Peterson and Joan Summers.

Toward the end of the meeting, local resident Berkeley Baker told the board they should not camouflage the reason for the budget cut. He said the cuts are not just because of declining enrollment- they are necessary because of the failure of former Superintendent Chris Williams and the previous school board to manage the school district.

The Paso Robles School Board will discuss further cuts at future meetings. The board needs to make $1.3 million in cuts in the budget in order to get the budget reserve up to the state requirement of 3-percent of the operating budget.

photo by christine brennan

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The news staff of the Paso Robles Daily News wrote or edited this story from local contributors and press releases. The news staff can be reached at info@pasoroblesdailynews.com.