Moorpark teachers protest proposed state budget cuts
By Eliav Appelbaum eliav@theacorn.com

IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers DEMONSTRATION- Gloria Pineda and her children Danny, 8, and Karina, 7, protest the proposed state budget cuts with other teachers along Tierra Rejada Road on Wednesday.

A dozen teachers waved signs on the busy corner of Moorpark and Los Angeles avenues as the sun blazed in the afternoon sky.

Commuters in sedans, big rig truckers, soccer moms in SUVs and students from a yellow school bus honked their horns and cheered.

Teachers from Moorpark, Simi Valley , Conejo Valley and Las Virgenes school districts took their message to the streets on Wednesday afternoon. Their message was simple: don't cut school funding, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The protest day, May 14, was selected because Schwarzenegger announced his May revise- and it was also California Day of the Teacher.

Richard Gillis, president of the Moorpark Educators Association, said 56 Moorpark teachers have been notified that they might not return, although some may return on one-year contracts. He added that Moorpark Unified School District could suffer $4 million in cuts.

IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers RALLY- Jennifer Fernandez, a third-grade teacher at Arroyo West Elementary School, and Irma Barragan, a kindergarten teacher at Peach Hill Academy, protest the proposed state budget cuts to education with colleagues along Tierra Rejada Road on Wednesday afternoon.

"California deserves better, and Moorpark certainly deserves better," Gillis said, before clarifying, "Moorpark, home of the academic decathlon champions, deserves better."

Kindergarten aides, temporary teachers, librarians, counselors and support staff have already lost hours, and many may still lose their jobs.

"This was supposed to be the governor's year of education. It's become the year of devastation to education," an incredulous Gillis said.

A group of about 20-30 teachers were also picketing next to Moorpark High School , at the intersection of Tierra Rejada Road and Mountain Trail Street .

Vanessa Heller, a teacher for 10 years but only two in Moorpark Unified, was one of the 56 instructors to receive a pink slip. She said the district has offered to rehire her, but she has yet to see an offer. Heller still doesn't know if she'll be back teaching fourth graders Flory Academy in the fall.

"Every spring I have to consider another career because I have no job security," Heller said through the din of Los Angeles Avenue traffic. "I love what I do, but I want to do it without stress."

At the high school, several teachers from Peach Hill Elementary stood with signs, including kindergarten teachers Valerie Krone and Paula Marrs and fourth grade teacher Jackie Pinson.

Kindergarten teachers in the district are expected to lose their instructional assistants. The aides are vital in kindergarten because some students enter with the ability to read simple sentences while others don't know the alphabet yet.

"We're losing a lot of help. These cuts seriously affect how well we can teach kids," said Krone, who has taught kindergarten at Peach Hill for 12 years, and been working in the district since 1989.

"I have a highly-trained aide. Her hours are going to be cut. . . . Especially in the morning hours when the kids work in small groups, you need an assistant in the classroom."

Marrs is perturbed that California schools are losing "new, young and enthusiastic teachers." She said many teachers are either leaving the profession entirely or are leaving for more secure teaching jobs in other states.

Pinson, who has taught for 25 years including 19 in Moorpark, has already felt the specter of the budget in her classroom.

"We already don't have enough paper," Pinson said. "I can't imagine what it's like in districts where parents can't afford the cost of supplies. . . .We have to charge kids more for field trips and pay for more supplies. It's kind of like tuition, which is not the way a public education should be.

"These cuts shouldn't be with education."