More Metro Detroit Teachers Given Layoff Notices 9MI)
May 16, 2011
Facing the largest cut to K-12 school funding in decades, Metro Detroit school districts are laying off their biggest expense: teachers.
Thousands of teachers have been pink-slipped this spring as districts grapple with multimillion-dollar budget shortfalls for the 2011-12 fiscal year, which starts July 1.
Th e Walled Lake Consolidated School District laid off a quarter of its teaching staff, 242, this spring, up from 196 last year. Plymouth-Canton Community Schools pink-slipped 269 teachers, psychologists and other staff members as it wrestles with an $18 million budget hole.
And Detroit Public Schools sent layoff notices last month to all 5,466 of its teachers.
“I would be surprised if any district was immune to having to lay off staff,” said David Martell, executive director of the Michigan School Business Officials, a nonprofit that represents business officials in school districts across the state.
By contract, districts must notify teachers before the end of the school year that they might not have jobs in the fall.
And while many teachers will likely be called back before the start of the school year — depending on enrollment and other factors — the situation in many districts is more uncertain this year without federal stimulus funds to bolster school budgets or last year’s state retirement incentive, which opened up jobs.
In February, Gov. Rick Snyder proposed cutting $470 per student and shifting that money to community colleges and universities. The Senate approved a smaller cut, but a final figure likely won’t be decided until both chambers meet in conference committee.
For many districts, having fewer teachers will likely mean larger class sizes, bigger workloads for those left, and fewer counselors and social workers come September.
“It’s very stressful to be a teacher right now,” said Terese Fitzpatrick, president of the Walled Lake Education Association.
Personnel is school districts’ biggest expense, accounting for 80-90 percent of budgets.
But several districts kept layoffs to a minimum.
The Troy School District laid off 10 teachers. The Grosse Pointe Public School System issued notices to 33 — 16 at the elementary level — down from 64 last year.
What made the difference in Grosse Pointe were the state’s retirement incentive last year and a district retirement incentive that 81 teachers took, said Tom Harwood, the district’s assistant superintendent of human resources and labor relations.
“That brought on a large group of new teachers that came on board at quite a reduced salary,” Harwood said. “We were also able to settle our contract and get some concessions in regards to salary and health care.”
Utica Community Schools, the second-largest school district in the state, hasn’t announced any layoffs, although it still needs to address a $19 million shortfall, spokesman Tim McAvoy said.
In Walled Lake, district spokeswoman Judy Evola said all but three laid-off teachers were hired back last year, but the district used federal American Recovery and Reinvestment funds, which are “going away” this year.
Still, the district hopes to call back a number of the 242 laid off this spring.
“We have, for the past several years, had a significant number of layoffs — simply because staffing becomes really complicated when you have 21 schools and three high schools and you have a variety of leaves and retirements — and we have a small enrollment decrease for next year,” Evola said. “It’s a balancing act every year.”
According to a survey done earlier this year by Michigan School Business Officials, 92 percent of 172 districts that responded plan to use some of their fund balances to deal with the state funding cuts. The survey found balances had decreased 23 percent in the last year alone.
For districts that already have depleted fund balances, the state aid cuts, along with higher retirement and health care costs, “will be devastating,” Martell said. Seventeen districts already are operating with a deficit, said the Michigan Department of Education.
“Between the cuts they’re proposing and the increased costs, especially retirement, it’s about $800 per pupil,” Martell said. “(For some districts), this will be devastating. It’ll throw them into bankruptcy.”