Giles County to Cut 80 Education Jobs

The odds are good that unless you do a lot of travelling in the south you don’t know much about Giles County, as a matter of fact you may not even know what state it is in. So, before we look at the job cuts that are being made in the area, lets get your oriented. The county describes itself in the following terms, “ Welcome to Giles County, Tennessee. Our Community is enriched with Tradition, Vision, Achievement and Service. We are located 58 miles south of Nashville, TN and 47 miles north of Huntsville, AL, two of the South’s most progressive cities. Its topography is beautifully contoured with rocks and high winding ridges in the north and stretches deep into the fertile valleys of Richland Creek and in the south.”

The county is, as many counties are in the current long-term fiscal slump, facing some issues with its budget. These issues, which are generally created by a serious decrease in tax revenue coupled with less money coming in from above. To that end the county is getting ready to cut back on jobs in order to make ends meet. In this case the issue is compounded by a $2 million error in book keeping that is setting the county back further.

To that end the schools are going to bear the brunt of the hit, as they are about to lose 80 workers in order to set the budget to right. That kind of a job cut is more then enough to qualify as a mass layoff action under the current federal guidelines. For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the federal government defines the term, “The Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) program collects reports on mass layoff actions that result in workers being separated from their jobs. Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.” Under a normal mass layoff workers must be given advance notice, but in this case the educators summer vacation will suffice for that purpose.

The county will finalize these plans at a budget meeting, which is set to be held on 07/20/2012 at 9:30 a.m in the Basement Boardroom at the Courthouse Annex, for those who wish to voice their thoughts on the matter.

Of course schools without budget errors are also feeling the pinch. Take for example the schools in Reading, PA, “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.”