A $1.8 million budget shortfall could prompt Eastern Sierra Unified School District trustees to increase the number of pink slips issued for the district to 14, including 11 teachers and three administrators.
With only 52.5 employees in the district, that could lead to the closure of one or more of the district's schools, officials said Thursday.
In a conference call with The Record-Courier, Superintendent Don Clark, Director of Fiscal Services Jessica Denison and Human Resources Director Mollie Nugent discussed the fate of the district which serves 500 students spread out over 3,044 square miles.
"We had a shortfall in revenues from property taxes as well as state receipts, which has created a situation where we need to react for next year," Denison said. "We have to notify any teacher if they will not have a position by March 15. We have to hold our options open. If there is another way to deal with the shortfall, we will do that."
Under California law, any teacher who might be laid off must receive a pink slip. Nugent said final action on the pink slips will be taken before May 15. Some of the positions will be eliminated through retirements or resignations.
"They are pending and not definite," she said.
Six pink slips were issued previously, and trustees are being asked to approve eight more at a meeting 7 p.m. today in Lee Vining.
Clark said that if additional layoffs are approved, the district may have to change the configuration of its schools.
"We're not an urban district, we're extremely rural," he said. "It would be up to the board to decide to do that."
The initial agenda posting included the potential that three of the district's eight schools next year in the district, Lee Vining Community Day School, High Desert Academy in Benton and Eastern Sierra Academy in Bridgeport.
The district has two permanent schools, at Coleville and Lee Vining, that would see staff reductions.
Clark said closing the three schools would affect about 34 students, including 20 in Bridgeport, a dozen in Benton and two in Lee Vining.
"When the agenda was first posted, we included a note that these things could come to pass," he said. "We were asked by the board and parents to take it off."
Clark said that if schools were going to be closed, California's Brown Act would require that the agenda specify that information.
If the Bridgeport school was closed, its students and staff would go to Lee Vining. Benton's students would go to Bishop, which is an easier route for the bus, according to Clark.