Trustees OK School Layoffs, Brace for Debate on Clinic

SANTA ANA — At an emotional meeting attended by an overflow crowd of more than 400, the trustees of the Santa Ana Unified School District on Tuesday considered a controversial plan to establish a school-based health clinic that opponents fear could promote birth control.

More than 60 members of the crowd lined up to speak on the issue after the district trustees voted on another emotional matter: employee layoffs.

In a unanimous vote, the trustees approved laying off more than 50 educators and classified employees to prepare for they fear will be major cuts in state funding. Among the 37 educators who will lose their jobs this fall are counselors, psychologists, elementary music teachers, librarians, speech therapists and physical education teachers.

“We have looked under every little rock and pebble to come up with money to save positions,” said Sal Mendoza, president of the district board of education.

After the vote, which had been expected since layoff plans were announced weeks ago, the board was confronted by citizens strongly opposed to the clinic, which they fear will lead to the distribution of birth-control devices and abortion referrals. More than 200 of the 400 people in the audience wore bright-red tags made of construction paper reading, “Education Not Medication.”

The clinic, which would be the first of its kind in the county, would focus on low-income students from kindergarten through fifth grade, whose studies might suffer because of inadequate health care. District officials insist that family planning will not be addressed at the clinic.

District officials became convinced of the need for a clinic after holding health screenings late last year at Grant and Roosevelt elementary schools. Of 107 first- and fourth-grade students examined, 88% had untreated health problems.

The proposal has drawn fire from a coalition of county residents concerned about birth control. The group has lobbied against the proposal since it was made public in December.

District officials said their main concern is healthy children.

Birth control would not be an issue, they said, because the clinic would be geared toward elementary students up to the fifth grade.

It has not been determined whether the clinic would be on school grounds, in a mobile facility or elsewhere in the city. The clinic would be financed completely through outside resources and would cost about $150,000 a year to operate, district officials said.

Before the debate over the clinic, the board voted to issue final layoff notices to meet today’s state-mandated deadline. The layoffs have been expected since the board approved $13.2 million in across-the-board cuts in March in reaction to Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposal to cut $2 billion from the state education budget.

Although the district expects to need 90 more teachers next year to accommodate rapid growth, some employees who are not credentialed to move into other teaching positions were laid off.

The board also approved layoffs for 15 classified employees, including library media assistants and career guidance technicians.

In addition to classified employees being laid off this week, six employees had previously received layoff notices, and 45 bilingual teacher aides and 15 Indochinese aides are expected to be laid off by the end of the month.

Some clerical employees and adaptive physical education aides may also be let go, said Carolyn Van Herk, president of the district’s classified employees association.

“It’s devastating because we’re talking about people’s livelihoods,” Van Herk said. “Something like this cuts very deep when you’re in a recession and jobs are hard to find.”