Winchester Public School’s Lay-Off Long Time Employee And 24 Others

The Winchester Public School system has demonstrated that no one is safe from layoffs during the current recession. JoAnne Showl, a fixture of the administration for over 30 years has received a layoff notice.

Showl is one of 25 employees to be laid off across the school district as the administration tightens its belts and implements severe cost-cutting measures for the 2010-2011 budget crisis hitting Winsted.

“I’m very hurt and very bitter that this happened,” Showl said in a statement to a local newspaper. “I was not ready to retire yet.”

Showl also said that during her 35 years of working at the district, she has never seen layoffs in the central office, or layoffs that affected such an array of teachers and staff.

Superintendent of Schools for the district, Blaise Salerno, told the Board of Education members that layoffs will amount to a 10 percent reduction in the districts employee pool. He also added that most of the layoffs would affect non-tenured teachers.

The superintendent stated that he was confident that layoffs would not exceed the mid-20s. “We have nowhere else to make cuts,” he said. “We’re really down.”