Group Protests Possible Layoffs at Mar Vista Elementary

About 50 teachers, students and parents gathered outside Mar Vista Elementary School early Tuesday morning to protest potential staffing cuts at the campus. On Friday, eight Mar Vista Elementary School teachers had received preliminary layoff notices from LAUSD. Final pink slips are scheduled to be issued May 15, and if all eight of the teachers are dismissed, Mar Vista Elementary will lose a third of its teaching staff.

Starting at 7:30 a.m. protestors arrived at the front gate on Granville Boulevard and the back gate on Stoner Avenue wearing placards around their necks declaring, "Superintendent Deasy Gets a Raise—We Get Pink Slips" and "No Class Size Increases—Layoffs Hurt Students." The placards also left space to write in the names of the teachers who have been targeted.

As people dropped their children off at school, demonstrators handed out sheets provided by United Teachers Los Angeles, requesting that parents share their contact information so they could be reached in the event of future protests.

"We're here to bring awareness to the community, gather signatures and hopefully get the tax extensions needed on the June ballot to keep our teachers," Claudine Czerny, co-president of the Mar Vista School Enrichment Group, told Mar Vista Patch.

Gov. Jerry Brown is calling on lawmakers to support  his proposed budget, and is asking for an extension on taxes that were implemented in 2009 and will expire in June. Brown wants to place the tax extensions measure on the ballot for a June special election, but to date Republican legislators are refusing to support him.

Brown's budget proposes $12 billion in temporary tax extensions and $12.5 billion in spending cuts.