The Santa Ana Unified School Board is considering significant job cuts for educators while proposing a salary increase for the superintendent, drawing sharp criticism from students, parents, and teachers. At a Tuesday night meeting, the board faced backlash over plans to lay off 351 staff members, including 169 teachers, 57 counselors, 55 coaches, 21 elementary school staff, and 16 teacher coaches.
The controversy deepened with the proposal to grant Superintendent Jerry Almendarez, whose annual compensation exceeds $447,000, a 3% salary increase and a 3% bonus. Almendarez explained that the cuts were necessary due to the expiration of COVID-related funding and a steep decline in student enrollment.
Sonta Garner-Marcelo, President of the Santa Ana Educators Association, criticized the situation, stating, “It’s upsetting because it’s a mismanagement of funds.” School counselor Monica Mejia added, “I feel like I’m at a funeral because the numbers don’t look good,” expressing concern that her position might be among those eliminated.
The proposed cuts highlight the financial challenges facing the district and the growing tension between its leadership and the community.
Earlier this year, a California school district allegedly instructed a teacher to prepare a lesson on gender identity for fifth graders.
The teacher also read a book on the subject and had the students watch a video of the book with kindergarten mentees. The book, called “My Shadow is Pink,” describes a boy who sees his shadow as pink, a reflection of “your inner-most you,” First Liberty Institute explained. The book character then “wears a dress to school, and his dad changes his beliefs and puts on a dress too,” the legal group noted.
Parents with children in the Encinitas Union School District have since filed a lawsuit, demanding opt-outs and notifications of the content.
According to the lawsuit, opt-outs may not be given for individual lessons, only for the entire unit. Other content covered in the unit with gender instruction included “puberty, health reproduction, media influences on health habits and body image, hygiene, boundaries and bullying and diseases and their transmission, including information about HIV/AIDS.”
Although the parents took their children out of the unit, the students were still subjected to the content through the school’s “buddy” program. The “buddy” program involves older students being “paired with younger students as ‘buddies’ to spend time together and form mentoring-based relationships.”
The teacher then read “My Shadow is Pink” to the students, without informing parents, after the school district believed fifth graders could be used to “help kindergartners learn about gender identity.”
