California leaders must keep their promises about schools affected by LA fires

After such an indescribable loss due to January the fire in Ethan, a new type of loss shook our school district in Los Angeles County and threatens to cancel much of the progress that has been achieved to Recovery and Recovery Our school community.

Recently, Pasadena Unified School District has issued a dismissal notifications to more than 100 teachers – many of whom lost their homes in the fire. The use of teachers during normal times is alarming. Two months after the Ethan fire, he is completely undoubted.

In the days after the fire, I came across my colleague Sergio Lopez, born and a math teacher in Altadan, appeared at a tears in the eyes to help me and other John Muir High School colleagues Distribute goods after the disasterS It was a hazy Friday morning with a strong smoke that still remains in the air. Two days earlier, Sergio lost his house, the Family Home for Multiplement in which he grew up.

Now, two months later, the same remarkable young mathematics teacher again has tears in his eyes, as he joins 115 teachers in the Unified School District Pasadena who received dismissal notifications earlier this month. His house is gone, his city was shortened and the school area himself he visited as a student and now serves as a teacher, he has signaled to him that he will no longer be his professional home.

When the State Chief of Public Instructions Tony Thurmond Visit our school neighborhood of an event to reopen all employees at the end of January, he gave a reasonable speech Promising the full support of the state for our communityS His remarks included a special phrase that stood out for many of us: “held harmless.”

Thurmond refers to the state’s commitment not to sanction our area of ​​impact, which may have Ethan’s fire on our total number of classes, the levels of attendance of our students, or the numbers of our records while fighting the unforeseen displacement, which many hundreds of students and employees had to endure. Thurmond did not mean that our area would be harmless by its current budget dilemma, a a trend that struck many school districts As they are faced with reducing recording and loss of funding for Covid relief.

HarmlessS These curious words seem scarce now. What Sergio and the other 114 employees who have received dismissal notifications are feeling at the moment is a great harm. Unthinkable harm. And our school community desperately needs the help of the state.

After the fire, he saw teachers, advisers, clerks and school staff of all varieties in action to find displaced students, voluntarily on sites for collecting and organizing a return to school so that students can return with their classmates and begin the hard work on processing the loss while continuing their education. At a time when safety and stability are so necessary, those teachers who have devoted their lives to the service to our students have seen their careers in dismissal. An area still trying from fires – still working to deal with the immeasurable trauma that so many of our students and employees have experienced – is not able to suffer another loss.

We need help.

Others may discuss who is to blame for the budget crisis of our area. What I want to see is the local, state and district leaders who enter and help. I hope that our political leaders, who have promised so much public support for our area, can find a way to provide emergency funding that will stop these cuts and provide relief to keep our schools fully staff as we continue to restore and restore our school community next year.

These 115 teachers and their students need cancellation. They must be kept harmless.