VESD eyes shortened school year, retirement incentives

VICTORVILLE • Victor Elementary School District officials are looking to shorten the school year by one day and convince employees to retire early as state cuts threaten to slash the district’s budget by more than $10 million, or nearly 13 percent.

“We worked diligently with our teams to come up with a really strong, productive retirement incentive to mitigate layoffs,” Superintendent Dale Marsden said, “and we’re hopeful that will reduce the impact significantly.”

To offer the retirement incentives, the district must reduce its work force of more than 1,000 employees by at least 1 percent, or roughly 10 positions. Board members will consider a slew of other cost-savings measures — including reducing school programs and possible layoffs — at the Feb. 24 board meeting.

To read the items set for consideration at Wednesday’s meeting, see Tuesday's Daily Press. To subscribe to the Daily Press in print or online, call (760) 241-7755 or click here.

Natasha Lindstrom may be reached at (760) 951-6232 or at nlindstrom@VVDailyPress.com.