Staunton School Board to Cut Jobs

It looks like bad news is coming to the workers, and the students of yet another school district. As it sits right now if all goes according to the school districts plan there will be serious cuts to the staffing in the school in the district. The school is looking to cut back on jobs in order to make up for $1.9 million hole in the current year’s budget.

The cuts, which are expected to affect 28.5 positions, many of which have not been named at the current moments, we do know the notices will go on the 17^th of February. At that moment the staff will find out who is going to get ready to be affected by the cuts. So for now, the staff will have to wait to whether or not they will be laid off, but for now no one knows who’s getting the chopping block. The decisions will actually be made on the 13 of February, at the next school board meeting.

What more, while the cuts are extensive we do not have to wait and see whether or not this will be enough to compensate for the entirety of $1.9 million hole in the  budget. As a matter of fact will save only roughly $862,000 for the city. That means other cuts need to be made.

The changes proposed by the Interim Superintendent of Schools will save most of the remaining amount of funds needed. These cuts include cutting energy costs, student insurance, and removing other regional programs. However all these cuts will leave a gap of $579,000, that will need to be cut from the schools for the entire $1.9 million is complete. This means that more layoffs may actually be on the table, but the current moment no one can confirm or deny that.

Well the current moment administrators are making sympathetic comments about the layoffs they’re unlikely to stop them. They’re saying it’s simply the only way to balance the budget gap is this option. At the current moment there is no discussion as to whether or not unions may renegotiate for workers, dealers are kind of health insurance are releasing raises or other benefits.

Of course they are not the only school to experience problems. The school district in Philadelphia is experience some major problems. Here is an excerpt from our earlier coverage :

“Things have not been great for the schools in the city of Philadelphia, as you already know if you live in the area, or if you follow the coverage on this site. The district was dealt another blow today when a third round of layoffs rocked the schools. This time it was 1,400 employees that got the boot. While these layoffs were not to the teaching staff, instead they came to the blue-collar workers who deal in facilities and transportation maintenance services, this is still a serious loss of jobs for the city.

This was not the first mass layoff for the city of Philadelphia in the last 12 months. In September the city’s school district had to cut jobs by about 850. Then over the summer roughly 1,000 teachers  were cut from the budget as well.  So on the whole the schools have shed more than 3,000 jobs since the end of the last school year.

At the current moment however the officials for the school district are hoping that the settlement of a dispute with the workers union can mitigate some of the layoffs. If the members of the Local 32BJ, Service Employees International Union, are willing to make some concession than they will be able to keep some of the jobs.”