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Caroline schools will layoff 20 teachers
Ed Simmons Jr.
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Twenty teaching positions will be cut if the state goes ahead with a $1.8 million cut to Caroline schools, said Dr. Eric Cunningham, assistant superintendent for Administrative Services, at the February 9 School Board meeting.
Additionally, 13 instructional assistants will be laid off and one assistant principal.
Names, types of teachers, programs and the impact on class size were not at this time discussed.
A salary freeze is in effect.
"If the cuts turn out to be worse, we'll have to layoff even more," said Dr. Cunningham.
Finance Director Clota Gerhardt said a scouring of the operating budget resulted in a savings of $148,000, cutting items like supplies, equipment, travel reimbursement and salary/benefit turnover. This leaves an additional $1.6 million to trim.
The proposed layoffs will save $1.3 million, leaving a balance of $273,000 which the schools will ask the County to return from their proposed $600,000 cut. If the County is unable, then more teachers will have to be laid off.
To make the cuts in positions, the schools will first look at retirements and attrition. After that, teachers who have worked for three years or less and whose performance is judged to be "poor" will be the first to be laid off.
Next to be laid off will be full-time substitutes and teachers whose license runs out at the end of the year.
Following that, the Reduction in Force policy goes into effect, with layoffs determined by seniority, the least senior laid off first.
When the economy turns around and it's again time to hire, the most senior of those laid off will be hired back first, with no new personnel being hired.
"These are hard times. We are bleeding," said Dr. Cunningham. |
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