MEDIA RELEASE
San Diego Education Association

June 4, 2020

10393 San Diego Mission Road, #100
San Diego, CA 92108
Website: www.sdea.net
Contact: Anthony Saavedra – (858) 922-9703, saavedra_a@sdea.net

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Gompers Preparatory Academy Lays Off Nearly Half of Teachers
in Attempt to End Unionization Efforts
Only union supporters notified of layoff as the school addresses potential 10-percent cut in state funding

SAN DIEGO – At least 29 out of 67 teachers at Gompers Preparatory Academy were notified Monday evening that
they will be laid off in three weeks as the school addresses a projected 10-percent decline in state funding.
The layoff notices included several vocal union activists, including multiple members of the union’s organizing
committee and bargaining team, and comes on the heels of a recent ruling in the union’s favor by an administrative
law judge at the California Public Employment Relations Board relating to charges that the school previously
retaliated against union supporters and intimidated teachers to not support the unionization efforts.
Despite the school’s board of directors having not met since January, the notices were sent that would cut more
than half the teachers in the school’s English and History departments and the entire Exercise and Nutritional
Sciences (PE) department. As it stands, the school is leaving only four math teachers, five science teachers, five
history teachers, and six English teachers, to serve the approximately 1,000 seventh through twelfth graders that
they are responsible for educating.
“I’m concerned with the intent behind these layoffs,” said Bargaining Team Member Spencer Mills, an English
teacher who received a layoff notice. “The school claims they put students first, but this drastic move doesn’t show
that when more than half of the English teachers have been laid off. How will the school attempt to successfully
bridge the education and literacy proficiency gap without qualified English teachers?”
Members of the Gompers Teachers Association, which is affiliated with and represented by the San Diego
Education Association, unionized in January 2019 and have been at the bargaining table without an agreement
since April of that year. In December, teachers filed an unfair labor practice charge with PERB alleging retaliation,
interference, and bad-faith bargaining.
“Our school prides itself in its stability and a strong educational culture,” said Vallery Campos, who has taught at
Gompers for five years and received a layoff notice. “It is disheartening to see students being negatively impacted
by this attempt to silence teachers advocating for improved learning conditions for both teachers and students.”
Gompers currently has numerous job postings and vacancies, including in areas where teachers were let go.

 “There’s no doubt in my mind that the decision to let go of these teachers is just another attempt by the school to
avoid their obligation to collectively bargain with teachers,” said Mills. “Ultimately it is the students who will lose as a
result of this decision.”
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The San Diego Education Association is affiliated with the California Teachers Association,
National Education Association, and the AFL-CIO.