Superintendent: Layoffs Would Save School District Over $2 Million

Faculty and employee layoffs next school year are expected to save the over $2 million, as the district comes to grips with a tax levy cap which limits school spending as mandatory pension payments stay on the rise.

Superintendent Nancy Carney that the tax cap law would create "an unsustainable fiscal structure for our schools to work under," and year one into it, many parents, students, and soon-to-be former employees are already seeing its consequences at the ground level.

Last Friday, 12 teachers and nine teaching assistants were made aware of their layoffs - slated for the start of next school year - Carney said via email on Monday. 

Some could be spared their jobs next year through teacher retirements and a teacher contract renegotiation, as a faculty contract expires on June 30 of this year.

Faculty union President Barbara Barosa did not respond to a request for comment.

Carney has predicted since December an overall budget gap in the 2012-2013 school year of about $3.2 million. The proposed layoffs will save $2.02 million, she said, with the remainder of savings coming through transportation restructuring, supply cutbacks, reduction in teacher conferences, and other measures.

"The decision to eliminate teaching and support staff positions was a difficult one and one that involved a balancing act of the district's overall needs," Carney said in a statement. "It is incredibly frustrating to me as an educator that any of these cuts had to be made. What is perhaps most upsetting to me is that none of these people are being laid off for cause; without exception they are each excellent employees who contribute to the education of our students."

A 12 percent increase in school benefits is slated for next year - jumping $3 million to $27.8 million - a result mostly of a mandated increase in employee retirement payments. , the percentage of employer contribution for teacher retirement is at its highest since the late 1980s.

The following teaching positions - totaling $1.4 million in salary and benefits - are on the chopping block: two math teachers, two special education teachers, two education teachers, one science teacher, one English language arts teacher, one home and careers teacher, one guidance counselor, one health teacher, and one technology teacher.

The nine teaching assistant salaries and benefits add up to just under $500,000, while other support staff proposed to be laid off totals to about $110,000.

Carney encouraged concerned members of the community to lobby Albany about the danger of the tax levy cap.

"I also am hopeful that parents and other members of our community will alert our governor and state legislators that they have created an law that makes preservation of our educational program unsustainable," she said. "The very mission of our district will be radically different in five years if we continue down this course."