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Impact of school budget cuts: 86 classroom teachers, 70 support staff, 22 administrators

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Impact of school budget cuts: 86 classroom teachers, 70 support staff, 22 administrators

WORCESTER ― School Superintendent Rachel Monárrez is proposing to cut 86 classroom teaching positions and 70 student support positions as well as five vacant psychologist positions and two positions based out of the Chandler YMCA building in order to close a $22 million deficit.

In addition to reducing teaching roles, the school budget proposal recommends cutting 22 administrative positions, which is equal to $2.8 million of the cuts that need to be made, Monárrez said.

“Unfortunately, as a result of the deficit, there will be reductions of employee positions in nearly all schools and departments,” Monárrez wrote in a letter to parents Monday. “While we have made every effort to avoid reductions in the classroom, the reality is that 67% of the budget is instructional or student support service positions and 1.3% of the budget is for administrative positions.”

The cuts come as the schools brace for the end of a pandemic package that delivered the largest one-time federal investment in K-12 education, the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund.

Some of the cuts will come from attrition. Thirty-one teachers are resigning, 12 are retiring and 11 are not being renewed for this school year. Brian Allen, the public schools’ chief financial and operations officer, said the public school enrollment remains lower than it was pre-COVID.

Teachers with more than three years of experience in the district, those who have professional teaching, will be safe, but there will be layoffs of teachers with less experience.

“Which is very sad to us,” Monárrez said. “These are the educators who are coming into the field. They are excited, they are passionate and it’s hard. It’s very hard to do this kind of work.”

The cuts will result in more children in each classroom.

Last year, Monárrez said, the student-to-teacher ratio in the public schools was 19 to 1. With the proposed cuts in teaching staff, the average classroom ratio is expected to increase to 21 to 1. Monárrez said the increase is still manageable.

As she said at the last School Committee meeting, the district has made room in the budget for unassigned teaching positions on standby. Monárrez said the schools have an average of five to 10 unassigned teaching positions.

“If we’re within the first quarter and we see a specific school struggle based off of the assessments we’re doing, we’ll be able to bring some people in and so some tutoring,” Monárrez said. “It gives some flexibility to be responsive to what’s going on in that given year.”

Executive director positions, athletic programs, the family and community engagement office, kindergarten para-educators, the school’s nutrition program and the public schools wraparound programs are all safe, according to Monárrez.

Monárrez said she discussed keeping the programs intact with parents, teachers, students and principals in the district.

“They gave us feedback,” she said. “We don’t know what it is going to look like when the school year opens up, but we are telling them what we are telling you. Our goal is 21:1.”

The Worcester School Committee is set to have a hearing on the budget Monday and will review it during budget session meetings June 6 and June 20.

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