Cartmill sends a note via First Class but does not respond to emails.

Mr. Cartmill sent this out to each employee via First Class email on April 20, 2009:

Good morning. As President of the Board of Trustees, I am pleased to report that we have rescinded 72 layoff notices to teachers and counselors, and we are working diligently to rescind the remaining 37.

Attached is a letter and recent Union-Tribune article.

Thank you for all that you do.
Jim Cartmill
see first class

He also includes a link to April 15 SD Union Tribune Article:

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/15/1m15rescind234546-school-districts-begin-rescind-t/

School districts begin to rescind teachers' layoff notices
By Chris Moran (Contact) Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. April 15, 2009

A month after issuing tentative pink slips to thousands of educators, school districts across the state have started rescinding some of the notices.

Los Angeles Unified School District voted yesterday to save about 2,000 elementary school teachers' jobs but may still have to lay off as many as 5,400 teachers and support personnel, The Associated Press reported.Sweetwater Union High School District Superintendent Jesus Gandara said yesterday that 66 of his 109 educators who received layoff notices will not lose their jobs.
San Marcos Unified School District has rescinded eight of the 49 notices it has issued, while the Del Mar school board will consider rescinding some notices tonight. Encinitas school trustees will be asked to rescind most or all of its 16 notices next week.

Last year, more than 2,000 San Diego County teachers received notices, but few of them ultimately lost their jobs.

This year, an estimated 26,000 tentative layoff notices have been issued to teachers statewide, more than 1,400 of them in San Diego County.

School administrators say they hope to find more budget cuts that save teachers jobs, and in some cases, they're trying to thin the teaching ranks voluntarily through golden handshakes.

But they also warn that teachers are more likely to lose jobs this year than last because of the deteriorating state budget situation. Schools get most of their funding from the state.

School leaders are making decisions based on the budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 that the state Legislature approved in February. That budget, though, is contingent upon the passage of a series of ballot measures next month, most of which are trailing in polls. In addition, an $8 billion deficit has appeared since the budget was passed.

Scott Patterson, assistant superintendent of business services for the Grossmont Union High School District, sounded surprised to hear that Sweetwater had already rescinded so many notices.

“That's pretty dicey business,” Patterson said. “There's so many things in play. There's the federal stimulus money that I hope helps, but the problem is the state budget is looking worse.”

Sweetwater started rescinding notices after 86 of its educators accepted an early-retirement incentive. The Mountain Empire Unified, National, San Marcos Unified, San Ysidro and South Bay Union school districts and the San Diego County Office of Education have offered the incentives, but none have reported results yet.

Teresa Juarez, one of five Sweetwater teachers of the year in 2008, received a layoff notice this year. She found out yesterday that her notice had been rescinded.

“It gave me the momentum I needed to push through the rest of the semester,” Juarez said. She had postponed her wedding after receiving the tentative pink slip but now hopes to hold to her original plan of getting married in November.

Staff writers Bruce Lieberman, Linda Lou and Leonel Sanchez contributed to this report.

Chris Moran: (619) 498-6637; (Contact)


email to Cartmill from a teacher:


Jim,
With so many notices rescinded it seems to me that maybe it was unnecessary to send them out in the first place.
I hope that the board is now also paying as much attention to the issues of increased class sizes and teacher salary as they are "saving jobs". Let's refocus our attention to saving our classes and the professionals that dedicate their lives to the kids, shall we?
Stephanie Hubner

This email was bounced back twice and Ms. H. still awaits a response.
Boardmembers use First Class for one way communication.
Thanks for all you do, Jim.