A packed room of concerned district employees attended Tuesday’s Turlock Unified School District Board of Trustees meeting as the trustees voted to send out 30 more pink slips for classified employees.

The approved pink slips that will be sent out for classified positions total to 55 layoff notices — including the slips sent out after the April 13 board meeting.

Trustees voted to send out layoff notices to 25 classified employees at their April 13 meeting with those pink slip recipients being terminated on or before July 1, said Heidi Lawler, TUSD director of Human Resources. The District can rescind the layoff notices up until the beginning of the next school year.  

“These are actual layoff notices,” Lawler said.

Those employees who received pink slips after the trustees approval at the April 13 meeting can use their bumping rights within their Turlock Classified – American Federation of Teachers 2007 – 2010 bargaining unit contract, potentially causing the District have to lay off more classified employees.   

“An employee laid off from his or her present class may bump into the next lower class in which the employee has the greatest seniority considering his/her seniority in the lower class and in the higher classes. The employee may continue to bump into lower classes to avoid layoff,” according to the Turlock Classified bargaining unit contract.

As a result of those 25 pink slips sent out after the April TUSD meeting, District employees are expecting a number of classified employees to bump into a lower class in order to save their jobs, Lawler said. To reach a set savings amount that Lawler was unable to disclose in order to respect negotiations, the District must send out 30 additional layoff notices to potentially leave 55 classified employees out of a job by July 1, if they don’t exercise their bumping rights.

The additional 30 pink slips being sent out after the board’s approval Tuesday night are in preparation of those classified employees who plan to use their bumping rights, Lawler said.

Classified employees receiving the second round of pink slips can also use their bumping rights, Lawler said. Employees can continue to use their bumping rights to save their jobs, but the District is hoping that this will be the last set of pink slips they will be sending out for classified employees.  

Lawler is expecting about 25 classified employees to be laid off with the remaining 30 employees to exercise their bumping rights, she said.

If the selected classified employees choose to be laid off instead of using their bumping rights, they can be rehired within a 39 month period and shall be reemployed in the reverse order of layoff, according to the Turlock Classified bargaining unit contract.

To contact Maegan Martens, e-mail mmartens@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2015.