Employees will take four new furlough days.

Castaic Union School District Superintendent Jim Gibson has announced that the District will slim down it’s schedule for the remaining school year and next year. May 13 will be clasisfied as a furlough day for all employees during the 2009-10 school year, reulting in a .54 percent salery cut for most employees.

During the 2010-11 school year, three furlogh days will be added to the schedule, resulting in a 1.62 percent salary cut. Those dates are November 12, 22 and 23, 2010.

The action was approved February 18 by the Castaic District Board of Trustees.

So far, Gibson says that the District has been able to effectivly weather the state’s budget crisis, avoiding teacher layoffs by making cuts to the budget and prudent economic decisions. But with total cuts potentially reaching $4.3 million dollars since 2007,  the District has been forced to think of more ways to trim down the budget. The District has already increased class sizes, cut transportation, reduced textbook and library book purchases, and eliminated summer school programs.

A District news release claims that the addition of the new furlough days aims to avoid future teacher layoffs or cuts.