Luke Judge

Warren could have kept quiet. But after his grandmother read a newspaper story about the snakeskin, he wanted to reassure people that the snake adopted from Carolina Pet Rescue last fall is safe and so are his neighbors.

It’s Roxanne who could now be in danger of losing her home.

A Chapel Hill ordinance, and a similar Orange County ordinance, prohibits the keeping of “poisonous, crushing or giant” reptiles.

Orange County Animal Services director Bob Marotto says crushing refers to squeezing snakes like boas “that are large enough to harm people.”

And that’s where the wiggle room comes in.

As far as Marotto knows, the county has not seized a crushing snake, although it has ordered poisonous species removed. And the ordinance does not define “giant.”

“It probably is an issue that requires a clarification to the ordinances,” he said. “I think we would probably have to investigate this if we knew there was a snake in the jurisdiction. I can’t tell you what we would do.”

The concern is not just what such snakes might do to people. In Florida, the release of exotic species is a growing problem.

People release pets outdoors when they get too big or they tire of them, said veterinarian Kay Bishop, founder of Carolina Pet Rescue.

Sometimes the animals have escaped, but “people have the mistaken notion that they can turn these animals out in the wild,” Bishop said. “This is not their natural habitat. They can’t survive.”

Bishop won’t house all animals. She rejected an African rock python, a species that can grow to 20 feet and swallow a gazelle.

But boas and smaller ball pythons make good pets, she said.

“They’re quiet,” she said. “They tend to only need to eat every 10 to 14 days. A lot of children and adults find them fascinating.”

Instead of bans, laws should focus on cage requirements and species, Bishop said. “There is a big difference between a boa and an African rock python,” she said.

Warren, 21, a journalism student at UNC-Chapel Hill, said he knows he might have to move Roxannne but wants to tell her story to help dispel people’s fears.

“She is very sweet and has never bitten anyone,” he said in an e-mail message. “I am terribly sorry for the scare that this snake skin may have caused to the postal workers and residents of Chapel Hill.”

At home Tuesday, Warren and roommate Neal Stultz said they feed the 12-pound snake two rats every two weeks. It takes about eight minutes from lunge to last gulp.

“Sometimes she gets nervous, and that’s when she stops moving,” Warren said as Roxanne slithered up a window pane. “I’ll come up and stroke her on the back and she’ll forget she was nervous.”

“Sometimes I like to give her little snake kisses,” he added. “Her tongue goes like this,” he said, flicking his finger in front of his mouth.

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Orange County students are likely to lose up to a week of instruction next year while classes grow ever more crowded, teachers are let go and course options shrink.

Employee furloughs – up to 10 days long – have joined class-size increases and teacher layoffs as favored options for balancing 2010-11 budgets at local school districts, which need to slash $365.3 million even after consecutive years of deep cuts.

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“We’ve trimmed from everywhere else at this point,” said Anaheim Union High School District Superintendent Joseph Farley, whose district faces a $24 million deficit.

All but a few of the county’s 27 districts and county Department of Education have approved furloughs or are considering them for the 2010-11 school year.

And as the school year shortens, teachers will face even larger classes, with some elementary grades expected to top 30 students.

Districts need to cut $90 million more than last year, and officials are banking on heavy furloughs to make it possible. But union talks and other factors could limit how many furlough days are taken or how many come from instruction or staff development days.

For school staff, furloughs amount to a pay cut. Five furlough days roughly equal a 4 to 5 percent salary cut, according to the county Department of Education.

“Losing part of our salary will definitely hurt,” said Jennifer Dario, a second-grade teacher in the Orange Unified School District, where officials OK’d four furlough days for 2010-11 and may tack on five more.

“My husband and I will have to continue tighten our belts. Some vacations and other things will have to be canceled next year. But at least I’ll still have a job,” she said.

For students and parents, furloughs could shrink the 180-day school year to 175 days – a temporary savings allowed by state lawmakers through 2011-12

In Centralia School District, for example, teachers work 186 days, including six staff development days. The district hopes to eliminate 10 days from its schedule, dropping instruction days to 175. Anaheim City, Anaheim Union High and Ocean View districts also plan on 175 class days.

Three districts – Irvine Unified, Fullerton elementary and Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified – are already using furloughs to shorten the 2009-10 year. Santa Ana Unified cut three non-instruction days this year.

Paola Serrano, a parent at Jefferson Elementary in Anaheim, said the five fewer school days would mean another week of day care costs for her two daughters.

“These furloughs are going to hit a lot parents hard,” she said. “I also want to know what schools won’t be able to teach now that they have less time in the classroom.”

Many educators and researchers say students will feel the impact whether districts cut instruction or development days.

“Fewer days in the classroom could mean even less time devoted to the ‘non essential’ curriculum, those subjects that aren’t tested,” said Debra Harris, a researcher for the Center for Education Policy. “Students will probably spend less time learning about art and music. Even P.E. will take a hit.”

Harris said states and the federal government might want to ease testing requirements during years when a financial crunch prompts furloughs.

Nationally, a handful of other states have also allowed schools to shorten the school year. Teachers in Hawaii recently agreed to cut 17 instruction days from this year’s calendar.

Still, O.C. schools are looking to cut 2,609 jobs so far – a number likely to rise.

Part of that, says county Superintendent William Habermehl, is because schools have to plan for worst-case scenarios – such as failed furlough negotiations. Schools are required to warn teachers of layoffs by Monday, the same day their 2010-11 budget forecasts are due – both deadlines well before negotiations conclude or the state approves its spending plan.

(Click here to read about the issues behind school budget cuts in California.)

As a result, districts are notifying 1,103 certificated staff – including teachers – that they may be laid off June 30. Also, at least 1,116 temporary teachers will be told they won’t be brought back next year. Classified staffs – from bus drivers to custodians to secretaries – also face cuts.

But districts also say it’s getting harder and harder to make these kinds of cuts.

The Cypress School District, battered by two years of painful cutting, doesn’t even employ temporary teachers anymore. Temporary teachers, typically the newest in a district, are usually the first to be cut.

“We’re giving 38 potential notices to permanent teachers,” said Cypress Superintendent Sheri Loewenstein. “We’ve cut music already. We’ve cut everything already, so all we can do is increase class sizes and reduce classified support – secretaries, custodians, every department at the district office.”

District officials say furloughs would help save jobs But unions say that argument is often used to scare teachers into agreeing to unfair pay cuts. Local districts and unions are at various stages of talks. Some are at an impasse; others have tentative deals.

Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified and its teachers union agreed recently to nine furlough days spread over two years, after administrators, who work 12-month schedules, agreed to take about 12 furlough days to equal the percentage in pay teachers will lose.

Linda Manion, president of the Association of Placentia-Linda Educators union, said the administrators’ concessions contributed to union membership accepting the furlough days.

“We’ve done everything we can to protect the programs and children,” said Manion, a 35-year educator. “Teachers are taking a pay cut through furlough days and we’re already taking a pay cut to supplement our classroom supplies. We still have the same (academic) standards, the same accountability, but we have less time to do it.”

In many cases, teachers will simply work without pay – such as after-school tutoring and review sessions – to ensure students are prepared for state testing and high school Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams, Manion said.

Capistrano Unified School District’s trustees and teachers union are locked in an ideological battle over how to close a gaping $34 million deficit. The union has offered to take a one-year cut in the form of seven furlough days through June 2011, while trustees insist on permanent, 10 percent pay cuts.

Both sides are preparing for a possible strike. An independent fact-finder brought in to recommend a compromise is expected to release a report any day.

Educators have said the need for furloughs and other severe cuts could be significantly diminished if lawmakers simply agree to some reforms to change state funding formulas.

Superintendents across the state have been lobbying for greater flexibility in categorical funding, the millions of dollars given to districts that can only be spent on specific costs like textbooks, teacher training, student remediation, drug and tobacco intervention programs, etc.

Local school boards should have greater freedom in determining how these categorical funds can best serve their districts, Habermehl said.

“There are solutions out there that don’t necessarily require more money,” the county superintendent said. “But if we don’t get some relief from Sacramento, we’re just going to continue to be in the same position year after year.”

Contact the writer: 714-704-3773 or fleal@ocregister.com

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