BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Nearly 100 jobs in Kern County's largest school district will be saved.

The Bakersfield City School District has experienced $25 million in revenue reductions in the past two years and expects an additional $5.5 million cut in July.

Through it all, the District has been able to maintain its class size reduction program in Kindergarten through 3rd grades at 21 students per teacher, as well as our K- 8 Music Program.

The District is required by law to adopt a balanced budget each year even though state support continues to decrease.

Because our annual budget is about 85% employee-related costs, cutting the budget each year also means reducing employee positions. For the past eight years, the District has endeavored to make cost reductions as far away from the classroom and students as possible. For the 2010-11 school year, however, it was necessary to issue preliminary layoff notices to teachers to achieve in part the required $5.5 million cost reduction.

At the May 10 Special Board of Education Meeting, Superintendent Michael Lingo said the following: “This has been a long and difficult journey for everyone. The decision that was handed down by the administrative law judge authorizes the Bakersfield City School District to lay off 89 teachers and 6 counselors. I am pleased to report that only 6 teachers will be laid off. Eighty-three teachers will be notified that they will not be laid off. Six counselors will be laid off. It is my expectation, as I have communicated to the Board and to Personnel Director Linda Goodspeed, that by the time the school year begins in the fall, the 6 teachers that will receive layoff notices will also be employed for the year, so we are very pleased.

I would like to thank Linda for all her hard work and Steve McClain for working to bring the retirement incentive program here, which was responsible for a lot of the teachers getting their layoff notice rescinded. I also want to thank the Governing Board for being with us all of this time and for authorizing the retirement incentive program to be sure that our teachers subject to layoff would have a job next year.” Board President Lillian Tafoya said, “I think that I speak for the Board that we feel gratified that the bad news is not so bad, even though we had a difficult year and we had hard decisions to make, we truly have all had the interest of the children and our employees in mind.”