The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District is moving to lay off more than two dozen employees at the end of the current school year, including teachers who help struggling readers and scores of custodial workers, even as the union representing many of those workers pushes back against what it calls disrespectful and destabilizing proposals at the bargaining table.
At their Feb. 19 meeting, the Board of Education will discuss three separate layoff resolutions that together eliminate more than 27 full-time equivalent positions across certificated and classified staff categories, with cuts set to take effect at the conclusion of the 2025-2026 school year.
Among those targeted for layoff are five teachers — four multiple subject instructors and one Spanish teacher — whose elimination has alarmed parents of students who rely on Language and Literacy Interventionist, or LLI, services.
A petition circulating among district families warns that the loss of reading interventionists will fall hardest on the district's most vulnerable students.
"My child is one of many students in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District who currently depends on the specialized support of a Language and Literacy Interventionist," said Yaso Thiagarajah in their Change.org petition. "I have seen firsthand how this targeted instruction acts as a critical bridge between struggling to read and academic success."
The petition urges the board and administration to maintain and fully fund LLI positions, arguing that eliminating the roles will disproportionately affect students from disadvantaged backgrounds and widen the achievement gap. "Every child deserves a chance to succeed," the petition reads. "LLIs make that chance possible."
The layoff resolution cites a reduction of particular kinds of services as the basis for the cuts and notes that no permanent employee will be terminated while a less senior employee is retained to perform a service the more senior employee is credentialed and competent to render. The resolution also includes specific provisions related to English Learner authorizations, reflecting the district's obligation under the Williams Settlement to ensure EL students are served by appropriately credentialed staff.
The layoffs extend well beyond the classroom. The board also approved resolutions eliminating more than 20 full-time equivalent classified positions, the majority of them custodians.
A resolution targeting classified services calls for eliminating 18 full-time custodians working 12-month, eight-hour schedules, along with additional part-time custodial positions totaling roughly 2.425 FTE, and one lead custodian position. In all, the classified custodial cuts amount to approximately 20.425 full-time equivalent positions.
A separate resolution targets classified management, reducing two plant supervisor positions for a total of 2.0 FTE.
The resolutions direct the district superintendent or designee to notify affected employees no later than March 15, consistent with state Education Code requirements governing classified and certificated layoffs. Employees laid off under the resolutions retain reemployment rights under the Education Code.
Seniority for classified employees will be determined in accordance with the district's agreement with SEIU Local 99 and the Personnel Commission's Merit Rules. In cases of tied seniority, a tiebreaker process will first consider total service in probationary or permanent status and, if still unresolved, require affected employees to draw lots.
The layoff announcements come as SEIU Local 99, which represents many of the district's classified employees, is engaged in active contract negotiations with SMMUSD and growing increasingly frustrated with what union representatives describe as the district's unwillingness to improve working conditions.
At a Jan. 29 bargaining session, the union's negotiating team put forward a series of proposals aimed at increasing hours and improving conditions for paraeducators, cafeteria workers, instructional assistants, health office specialists, campus monitors and bus drivers.
Among the union's proposals: moving bus drivers to an 11-month work year, securing additional paid time for drivers to inspect and clean buses, and reducing unpaid lunch time so drivers are not effectively working without compensation during breaks. The union framed the proposals as essential to student safety and worker dignity.
"These proposals are about stability, safety, and respect for the work we do every day," the union said in a written update to members.
The two sides did reach tentative agreements on some procedural matters, including changes to how employee evaluations are timed and a restructuring of chief steward responsibilities to expand member representation through a steward council.
But the union said the district's counter-proposals were a step backward. According to SEIU Local 99, management sought to require documentation for bereavement leave even in cases the union described as clearly legitimate, add multiple supervisors to already stretched workloads, continue contracting out work performed by union members, preserve lengthy disciplinary timelines and limit the number of union representatives permitted at the bargaining table.
"Your bargaining team strongly opposed these proposals and made it clear they would make working conditions worse — not better," the union said.
The union also accused the district of moving to lay off workers without transparency, saying management announced plans to cut positions while declining to identify who would be affected or explain the reasons for the cuts.
"Despite having the money, the District has announced plans to lay off workers — while refusing to tell us who or why," the union said. "These layoffs could possibly affect YOU."
SEIU Local 99 is calling on members to show solidarity by wearing purple or union gear every Tuesday and to mobilize ahead of future bargaining sessions.
The layoff resolutions set March 15 as the deadline for the district to issue notices to affected employees, consistent with state law. The cuts are slated to take effect at the beginning of the 2026-2027 school year.
Employees subject to layoff under both classified and certificated resolutions are entitled to reemployment rights under the Education Code and, for classified workers, under applicable provisions of the district's agreement with SEIU Local 99 and the Personnel Commission's Merit Rules.
The district had not publicly responded to the union's characterization of negotiations or the parent petition as of press time.
The School Board meets on Thursday, Feb. 19 at 5:30 p.m. in the District Office: 1717 4th St.