EDUCATION: MBUSD may lay off dozens of employees in coming years
by Mark McDermott The Manhattan Beach Unified School District will need to lay off as many as 60 employees over the next two years due to an anticipated cut to the district’s already drastically lower-than-average state funding. MBUSD Deputy Superintendent Dawnalyn Murakawa-Leopard gave the Board of Education an interim budget report at last week’s meeting in which she presented projections that show an unavoidable budget shortfall. The difference between revenues and expenses will be either $6.5 million or $9 million, depending on whether voters approve the $2.5 million parcel tax renewal on the March 5 election ballot. Murakawa-Leopard said layoffs will occur in either scenario. Absent the parcel tax extension, she estimated MBUSD will need to cut 32 positions for the next school year, in addition to six positions tied to one-time grant funding already scheduled to be phased out. “I do think that’s really important to understand that even in the best case scenario, if the parcel tax passes, we still have a budget issue that we are going to need to address,” Murakawa-Leopard told the board. “But of course, we can’t count on that parcel tax passing because it’s unknown at this…
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