835 Employees would be cut in Cleveland School District Proposal

School districts all over the nation are facing cuts to their budget and staff on a daily basis, and Cleveland Metropolitan School District is no exception.  The interim CEO of the school district, Peter Raskind, has proposed closing seven schools and laying off 835 school employees, as well as not replacing 135 employees that are set to retire.  650 of the 835 employees the district plans to layoff are teachers.  The total amount of workers that would be lost in this proposal is about 1,000.

In the proposal, the schools that would be closed are: Captain Arthur Roth, the Early Childhood Center at Charles Orr, Emile B. DeSauze, Genesis at Margaret Ireland, Giddings, Union, and Woodland Hills.  The school district has proposed these cuts because it is facing a $47.5 million deficit, and making these cuts would save the district about $74 million in the following two years.

The central office staff would be decreased by about ten percent in the proposal.  Textbooks and sports funding would also be cut back.

As of right now, all of the details are getting finalized for 2 different public meetings that will be held in Cleveland.  The first one will be held at East Tech on March 29, and the final meeting is going to be held at Lincoln West on March 30.  The proposal will likely be voted on by the school board in the next couple of weeks.