Lake Elsinore School District Cuts 15 Positions

The Lake Elsinore Unified School District will eliminate 15 positions related to First 5 programs that provide health care, education and child care services for infants, toddlers and their parents.

The district board, meeting April 14, voted to make the cuts.

The jobs will be eliminated at the end of the fiscal year June 30. The positions are classified and non-instructional, said Mark Dennis, district coordinator of community and media relations.

First 5 Riverside County reduced funding for its programs on April 13. The Lake Elsinore district stands to lose about $1.2 million in funds. That’s about a third of the district’s budget for early childhood education programs.

It includes the Students Needs Assistance Program, also known as SNAP, which uses a screening process to assess a child’s development in order to determine classes and services that can help them along.

The program specialists also help families involved to get access to available resources.

Children up to five years of age are screened for fine and gross motor skills, speech and hearing.

Dennis said that the district will continue to provide some sort of assessment screening. But instead of providing for children 0-5, it will likely be children 3 and up, Dennis said.

The district believes it is important to determine if a child is behind in educational development and find the nature of the cause.

Early detection can be less costly over time than the costs associated with a child that does not receive the assessment, Dennis said.

Also, the district wants to assure there is a good environment for the child at home.