Tam high schools district OKs provisional staffing cuts

The Tamalpais Union High School District has approved provisional staffing cuts for next year that, if finalized in May, could limit students throughout the district to a seven-period day, suspend a popular experiential education program and eliminate teacher release periods that student journalists say are crucial to producing high-quality work. The district board at its March 10 meeting voted 4-1, with Dan Oppenheim dissenting, to issue preliminary layoff notices to the equivalent of 6.4 full-time teachers across its schools. Under state law, the district must inform teachers by March 15 that they might lose their jobs for the following school year but have until mid-May to finalize or rescind any of those layoffs. The provisional layoffs are the district’s first step toward slashing $3 million from its 2020-2021 budget, cuts necessitated after its unsuccessful attempt to pass a 10-year parcel-tax increase and renewal measure in the March 3 election.

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