MBUSD considers laying off 30 employees
The Manhattan Beach Unified School District is facing a structural budget deficit that district leaders have determined will require at least $3 million in cuts in the next year and as much as $6.1 million in reductions over the next two years. Among the budget reductions on the table are the layoffs of 30 employees. Superintendent Mike Matthews has been signaling that difficult decisions lay ahead for the district for the past several months, beginning with a message he included in a newsletter in October that broached upcoming budget challenges. “As we officially close the books on the 2018-19 school year, and look forward to the next three years of our budget, I am, to put it bluntly, very concerned,” Matthews wrote. Matthews said that MBUSD has managed to avoid layoffs over the last five years in part due to the passage of the $2.7 million Measure MB parcel tax and millions of dollars in funding provided by the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation. But enrollment has been on a steady decline, he wrote, while expenses have increased — especially employee pension costs, which have quadrupled, going from $2.9 million in 2011-12 to $12.2 million this fiscal year. Additionally…
Read this story on easyreadernews.com