Reading Schools to Cut 200 More Jobs

When it comes to jobs in education there are a lot of problems. As cities and states take in less in the way of revenue they have less to spend on each individual service. This has left the schools of many cities and towns scrambling to figure out how they are going to make ends meet as the number of dollars shrink and the costs of basic services increase.

Today the job cuts in question are to the schools in the town of Reading, Pennsylvania. The school board for the town voted to cut back on about 200 workers in order to close a serious hole in the budget. About 108 of those workers who are in classroom educators are being dropped by the schools in order to make up the $40 million the school does not have in the budget. This plan will also require the closure of several schools in the district and require the school to dip into reserve funds in order to make things work. All in all it looks pretty grim for the schools.

This is not the first time in recent weeks that the school has talked about cuts to jobs in the recent past. Some of you may recall when the school issued close to 100 layoff notices to workers earlier in the month of June. For those of you who do not recall here is an excerpt from that earlier coverage that will get you up to speed in no time at all, “It looks like bad news is coming to the workers of the Reading School District. This week the Reading School District employees took another hit as they found out that they are losing more of their compatriots to the districts new school budget. 90 notices have been given out to workers employed by the schools, letting them know that a job with the Reading schools will not be in the future for the next school year.”

Before that the school has made cuts in other recent school years. During those cuts the school was also ready to shed a significant number of workers in the pursuit of a balanced budget. For those of you who missed on out our earlier coverage here is an excerpt that will get you up to speed in no time at all. “In Reading things must be pretty bad because the city is getting ready to cut back on their staff by a significant number. The city schools will be laying off 364 workers in order to bring its budget back into balance for the coming school year. The 2012-13 school year budget was passed yesterday and it comes with some pretty serious cuts to the local schools services. These cuts, which are being made in order to shore up a $40 million hole in the budget for the coming school year…will also include the closure of five schools in the district and some serious cuts to school services. Though at the time being the school board is not being clear on which of the service cuts they will make and which they will cut.”