By Sara Ballenger

More than half the classified employees have received pink slips for the next school year

The Los Altos School District eliminated more than half of its classified employees last week in one of the largest layoffs in the district’s history, in order to balance an anticipated shortfall in next year’s budget. District officials said the district is facing a $1.9 million deficit for the 2002-03 budget since voters defeated a proposed parcel tax increase last March.

School board members laid off 110 of the district’s 206 classified employees, or the equivalent of 41 full-time employees, June 17.

District custodians, teacher aides, account clerks, computer network specialists, library and school coordinators, a gardener and other employees who are not teachers and don’t need to be certified are included in the layoffs.

“This is the first layoff of any kind, other than temporary teachers, in the 15 years I’ve been superintendent. I am finding it heartbreaking,” Superintendent Marge Gratiot said.

Gratiot said there were times in the 1960s and 1970s when virtually all employees were laid off, but the number of employees was much smaller then.

“I would guess it is the largest layoff,” she said.

Employees were in shock last week.

“We all knew that the parcel tax could affect us, and of the possibility that money could be scarce. It’s just a shock when you start putting the names on paper. We are losing half of our bargaining unit and it looks slim as to who will return,” said Sherry Hakes, president of Chapter 103 of the California School Employees Association, an organization to which the majority of the classified employees belong.

Anne Starr, the secretary in charge of classified personnel at the district office, will be writing the layoff notices, including her own.

“It was my job responsibility to put together the seniority list,” Starr said.

“It’s been really sad. I love working for the district. It’s been one of the best jobs I have ever had.”

Seniority is determined by the number of hours a person has worked in the district, rather than a person’s hire date. Employees with the fewest hours of seniority will be the first to receive their notices, Starr added.

Starr and Hakes hope that the district will be able to reinstate its classified employees by the beginning of the next school year.

The district originally faced a $4.5 million deficit, but it restored $2.6 million through fund-raising efforts by the Los Altos Education Foundation and Save Our Staff.

“We are hoping that some funds will come around, from the state … or a number of sources,” Hakes said.

“Once the job goes away, it cannot be done by volunteers.

The local community has been so wonderful about supporting our schools, you would never think we would have to say now that we fell short.”