While many Santa Clarita Valley teachers saw their jobs saved by federal stimulus money, school classified employees — including clerks, instructional aides and custodians — have been hit hard by layoffs and pay cuts, officials said last week.

“We have to balance our budgets, but the state doesn’t have to balance theirs,” said Pam Castagna, president of the California School Employees Association Chapter 349, which represents more than 700 non-teaching employees at the William S. Hart Union High School District.

“If someone gets a pay cut, then obviously the whole family has to suffer,” she said.

More than 40 classified employees have been let go at the Hart district.

Through retirement incentives, the number of classified employees at the Hart district has dropped by 68 people from 2008-09 to the current school year, said Sue Guthrie, chief financial officer for the Hart district.

Teachers’ jobs saved
Federal stimulus money saved about 350 teaching jobs in the SCV over the past year, but the bailout did little to help classified employees. Meantime, a new state budget shortfall is looming.

“Anything we do here on out (in terms of cuts) is going to be crippling,” Guthrie said.

For the classified employees who have not been laid off, Castagna said the district put a hold on issuing overtime, and health benefits have shrunk.

Classified employees will feel a 1.62 percent pay cut through furlough days this year.

“It’s very stressful for people,” Castagna said. “I’ve noticed a change in the attitude (of people) and the atmosphere. They’re a little more tense.”

Easier to let go
Classified employees are often hit hardest when funds to education dwindle, said Marc Winger, superintendent of the Newhall School District.

“You need to have a teacher in front of the kids,” Winger said. “That’s the core of what we do. You can’t have classrooms without teachers.”

Cutting custodians, instructional aides and office workers is seen as a way to trim around the edges of the classroom, he said.

It’s also easier to lay off a classified employee than a teacher, he noted.

Classified employees require a 45-day notice to be laid off; teachers have to be notified months before the school year begins.

But that’s not to say the classified employees’ work isn’t felt in the classroom.

“Everything we do is about the classroom,” Winger said. “We’re cutting employees that support our classrooms.”

Buildings deteriorate
Sulphur Springs School District has lost up to 15 full-time-equivalent classified positions out of 220 total, said Superintendent Robert Nolet.

Cutting maintenance and custodial positions has a lasting effect as buildings deteriorate, which can drop property values, Nolet said.

“We don’t respond to people’s work orders at the same level we once did because we’re not staffed to be able to do that,” Nolet said, adding that emergency maintenance requests are still responded to.

“It’s a cascading effect,” he said.

At Castaic Union School District, school officials had to lay off one certificated and one classified employee.

However, Superintendent James M. Gibson said the district was able to re-hire the workers by changing the way the positions are funded.