Yes on 100

Deer Valley Schools OK Teacher Layoffs

The Deer Valley Unified School District governing board has approved a preliminary budget for next school year that includes laying off 69 teachers, a majority of them kindergarten through sixth-grade instructors.

The layoffs come as the district grapples with a budget deficit that could be as high as $26.1 million. That deficit could get cut in half should Proposition 100 -- a one-cent state sales-tax increase -- pass in the May 18 election.

Regardless of the election's outcome, the cuts to the district and the loss of $4.1 million for funding a free all-day kindergarten program were too much to keep some teachers off the chopping block.