It happened Tuesday night, both sides verbally agreed to lay off 200 teachers. If you look at the original proposal from the school district of 700 layoffs you could say 500 jobs have been saved.
At issue is money. The school district says it needs to cut $113 million from the budget, $30 million of that must come from the teachers union.
Cutting 200 teachers will save the district some of that, but there will be other sacrifices as well including no sabbaticals for teachers and four furlough days. There will be no increase to class sizes. Both sides are very confident this agreement will result in a final agreement.
Layoffs will go out to 350 on Saturday, the negotiations will resume on Monday. If all goes well, this will be in front of the union before the end of the month and both sides are hoping it will be approved.
In related news, Wednesday is the annual celebration of Day of the Teacher and students and parents and teachers are marking this day by protesting education cuts throughout the Bay Area. A rally in Fremont this morning was one of many, fighting against layoffs and bigger classes.
