LYNWOOD — Nearly 300 teachers, district employees, parents and students packed the Lynwood school board’s meeting Tuesday night to protest the proposed layoff of 131 teachers.

Even though the crowd disrupted board members several times during the meeting, chanting “Save Our Teachers, Save Our Teachers,” and were warned by board President Jose Luis Solache to quiet down and be respectful, board members unanimously agreed to send the proposed cuts back to the drawing board, directing district staff and the superintendent to find more ways to save more teachers.

“Today was a day when everyone came and wanted to be heard and did not want to [listen],” board Vice President Alfonso Morales said before going into closed session Tuesday night. “But there was plenty said by the board and through a written statement read by the board president.”

If paying attention, Morales said, the crowd could have heard the board give direction to the administration to “go back to the books.”

“Relook at the books,” Morales said, repeating what was told to staff. “Relook and find money somewhere, change something else and decrease the amount of layoffs. … Give us something, because we don’t want 131 layoffs.”

The protesters arriving at the school district offices at about 5:30 p.m. then crowding into the school board chambers was the largest group longtime board member Rachel Chavez said she had seen in her 14 years on the board.

In his written statement, Solache — speaking on behalf of his colleagues — recommended that district staff review the positions slated for layoffs.

“We need to look at every way we can to fund positions and save programs … and be brought back to the board for discussion, maybe by Wednesday of next week,” Solache read. “The board approved 119 tentative possible layoffs, but the board is asking for staff to come back with a much smaller number.”

As pleased as the crowd may have been to hear Solache read that part of the statement, it dwindled when he reminded the crowd — most of whom were teachers — that two of the district’s unions had already agreed to take four furlough days in exchange for no layoffs, and neither of them is the teacher’s union.

“What does that mean?” he asked. “It means that two of our unions said ‘we understand’ the district’s financial situation. … The superintendent and every single principal is also taking four furlough days. Board members too.”

Solache applauded the two unions and even asked their respective representatives to stand for acknowledgment.

Solache’s intentions, however, didn’t sit well with the teachers, especially with Linda George, a former president of the Lynwood Teachers Association, who received a pink slip in the mail last weekend.

“It’s pathetic that the president of the school board pits the people who work in this district against each other like that,” George said after the meeting. “Five furlough days were offered to the teachers, but with a catch … teachers would have to work on those furlough days. Classified employees can simply take those days off and not get paid. Teachers would have to come to work on those days.”

George’s statement to the board, as part of the 23 individuals who signed up to address the board during public comments, wasn’t as nice.

“In 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed a paper that said that we didn’t have to work for free anymore,” George told the board. “Only 119 were approved, but 131 were mailed out. … It’s ridiculous how this board continues to disrespect its teachers like this.”

George, along with several speakers, including students, brought up several instances of “misused” district funds, such as paying for high-priced attorney services, legal consultants or the district being top heavy at the administrative level.

The speakers also protested an alleged “seniority list” in which the cuts were selected from.

The district continues to misspend money on legal fees, George said, yet keeps on crying that there is no money.

“Well let me tell you something,” she said. “Despite all the money being misspent, this district is going to have to find more money to pay more attorney fees because they’re going to have to represent [the district] at my hearing.”

While many of the district’s budget constraints are being blamed on the Superintendent Dayan Lal’s leadership, the district — as most other school districts in the state — is faced with having to lay off teachers.

The Los Angeles Unified School District this week announced it was laying off possibly as many as 8,400 employees.

School board clerk Oscar Espinoza, a teacher at King-Drew High in the LAUSD, received one of those layoff notices.

“It’s hard to think that you put hard work into your job, but at the end of the day you’re just a number,” Espinoza said, adding that he knows firsthand that teachers have a right to be angry at the cuts. “Our only solace, here, is that … our goal is to reduce the number as much as possible.”

The shouting, he said, shouldn’t just be directed at the five-member school board in Lynwood, it should be directed “to your assemblymen, to your senators, to the governor.”

But just as he hopes the process on the LAUSD side is fair, Espinoza assured the crowd that he and his colleagues are doing everything they can to make sure the process in Lynwood is fair as well.

“We know it’s not fair,” Solache said. “Believe us, we are fighting with you. Time and time again we have publicly directed staff to make sure they save every possible position. We do get it, we understand.”

For teachers who received the pink slips, however, it’s very hard to believe that the board understands, said one teacher, who asked to remain anonymous, when the board has found it OK to eliminate entire departments from the school district, from art programs, music programs, computer programs and its ROTC programs.

The district also passed out bright orange colored fliers titled “Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Certificated Layoffs.”

The flier said “the district needs to reduce its workforce in order to balance its budget. … The district has looked at each group of employees (teachers, classified and administrative staff) to determine what cuts can/should be made on an equitable basis and with sound business judgment.”

The flier, however, according to Hector Marquez, vice president of the LTA, is riddled with mistakes and misinformation, including the part that fails to mention why the district is allegedly overstaffed.

“If this district is overstaffed, it’s because this board allowed the hiring of more teachers during the last two years when enrollment was declining,” he said. And he said, the flier didn’t mention that prior to Lal coming to the district, only a few district schools were under the program improvement status. Now, the entire district is under that status, Marquez said.

Students and parents also spoke against the cuts. One student broke out in tears.

“You guys need to work something out, but don’t cut our teachers and our programs,” said Ysamar Barboza, a Firebaugh High School senior. “You ask us to be more involved, more informed, maybe we need another way to communicate with you [the board] … create a comment box at the schools … I don’t know … we can’t just come to every meeting. Our parents work and we have homework … you are all bright, you should be able to work something out.”

Barboza asked the board members to walk through the nearby park on any given day so they can see for themselves how “education is already going to waste.”

One teacher expressed that maybe “everyone” needed to take the responsibility of the cuts together, and not just blame the school board. “Together we can work through this,” he told the crowd.

But many in attendance insisted the blame, and the district’s deficit, should be put on the leadership of the district, and not on the backs of students or their teachers.

Oscar Moreno, a Lynwood High School alumni, told the school board that their priorities were off.

“You think it’s the best way to resolve the problems … by taking down teachers … yet your consultants and lawyers continue to be overpaid … layoffs are counterintuitive [in a district] that needs more teachers, and needs lower teacher ratios.”

A current student at Williams College, Moreno congratulated the board on reaching agreements with two of its unions to help balance the budget, but asked if in doing so, did they forget to look at making cuts in those areas?

Longtime parent activists, however, said that board members and the superintendent have never been open to reason — at least not until very recently.

“We’ve been telling this board that money was being misspent for years and years,” said Martina Rodriguez, a member of the Lynwood Save Our Students parent group, and a former school board member. “But no one has listened to us. If someone had listened, we wouldn’t be here right now. Instead we’ve been called the troublemakers and … no one ever gets back to us with a reply.”

Another active member of SOS is Joaquin Mesinas, who reminded the audience that in 2003, the district had $24 million in its reserves. Now it has about $5 million. What happened to all of that money, Mesinas asked?

Aside from alluding to union members pouring thousands of dollars into Solache’s campaign, Mesinas asked the board to “grab the bull by the horns, and finally, get rid of the superintendent.”

Jesus Escandon, the district representative for the California Teachers Association, collaborates Mesinas’ accusations, saying he has documents that prove how $24 million has been wasted in the last four years in the district.

That report will be arriving very soon, Escandon said.

Asked if it was true, board member Morales admitted that he was aware that back in 2003 the district’s reserve in fact consisted of $24 million.

That, however, is a classic example of misinformation [out in the community], Morales said. The fact is, a previous superintendent was attempting to create a stadium in Lynwood, so in doing so he accumulated this huge reserve for the construction of the stadium, which ended up being $24 million, Morales said.

“After he left, I’m not sure what was done with the money,” he said. “As far as I am aware, that money went to programs, whether they were the right programs or not is another question. But yes, the reserve was that high at one point but not because that’s what should have been there.”

As far as he is aware, Morales said that with $5 million in the reserve account, the district is in compliance. “The district is not in the red … not at all,” he said. “If it were, that would directly impact our certification with the county.”

Still, Mesinas questions where $20 million could have been spent in the last four years.

“If that money was spent on programs, it would show in our [district’s] progress,” Mesinas said. “Instead, the county is investigating the district, the district is being audited, and all of our schools are under program improvement status. Plus, not even half of our schools have met their [average yearly performing goals]. If that money was spent here on our students, it would show.”

Morales reminded the public that layoffs are difficult for everyone, even for board members.

“We want to put the cards on the table, but people have to be willing to listen. I mean these aren’t exactly easy decisions,” he said. “I don’t think there is much that can be done to keep everybody happy 100 percent of the time, but be assured that we’re going to try.”

Even though school districts across the state are making cuts just as drastic, in Lynwood, says Val Zolfghari, president of the LTA, it could have been avoided had their been better leadership and accountability. So much that in his address to the board, Zolfghari blamed the district’s deficit and mismanagement on the superintendent and presented him with his own version of a pink slip.