Teachers and classified workers brace for possible layoffs

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – By law, California school districts, including the Santa Barbara Unified School District, have to notify employees by March 15 of possible layoffs.

Workers call them pink slips, but the district calls them Reduction In Force notices.

They must be sent out two months before the May 15 state budget revision, which is when final decisions will be made.

School districts and even educators are likely to be preparing for the worst.

Lead Family Engagement Liaison, Peggy Ochoa, is a classified worker who received her notice on Friday. 

"To get this layoff notice was just heartbreaking because it is almost like the job I have always wanted,  the job of my dreams, to get this letter saying, actually, you can't follow through with that dream, is very heartbreaking to me," said Ochoa.

Ochoa will find out on May 15 if it is permanent and said her California School Employees Association could put her name in a lottery to see if she can return to her former classified position due to her seniority.

Her union is just beginning contract negotiations with the district, while the teachers are in mediation with their next meeting in April.