This school district estimated a $12 million shortfall. Here’s what positions will be cut
The Peninsula School District has outlined which positions will be cut to address a budget deficit anticipated for the coming school year.
Among the changes: Roles in the district office will be affected and fifteen teachers will be reassigned.
PSD made the announcement in an April 23 news release.
In early March, the Peninsula School District announced they discovered they would not be receiving as much funding as they thought for the 2023-24 school year.
Part of the deficit in funding is a decrease in student enrollment. PSD enrollment numbers have dropped by 5% since 2019, before the pandemic.
The district estimated a $12 million budget deficit, if they maintained current staffing and program levels.
As a result, PSD officials and union representatives reviewed the district’s 2023-2024 budget to determine what changes needed to be made.
“The state allowed us to maintain our funding based on pre-pandemic enrollment, but that ends this year,” Ashley Murphy, the district’s chief financial officer, said in a March press release. “Because we have fewer students than in 2019, our district will receive less in federal, state and local funding.”
In early April the district announced the equivalent of 40 full-time non-teaching positions would see reductions or cuts for the next school year. At the time of that announcement they did not share exact positions.
On April 23, the district gave further details in a press release about what positions will be affected.
The press release said:
- For classified and non-represented staff, 21.7 full-time equivalent positions were reduced through attrition, meaning an employee retired or resigned and the position will not be refilled.
- The equivalent of 5.5 full-time positions saw a reduction in hours, primarily in secretarial and custodial positions. To limit the impact on students, many of these reductions were summer work days.
- A total of 15 full-time equivalent positions were laid off, including 10 at the district office.
The full list of the impacted positions can be viewed here.
“Our district’s most significant impacts were at the district office, with affected staff representing a total of 42% of the layoffs and reduced FTE, including 14 supervisory positions,” according to the press release.
Additionally, 15.4 certified employees will see changes in a different way, through restructuring efforts. These positions will not see layoffs.
The 15 positions include “five deans at elementary schools with fewer than 425 students, two high school deans, five instructional facilitators and 3.4 FTE Global Virtual Academy (GVA) teachers,” the press release said.
“The 15 impacted certificated employees are being offered positions that are available through natural attrition within our district,” Danielle Chastaine, spokesperson for the district, confirmed.
Student enrollment for GVA has decreased 70% since 2021. PSD will not offer the program next year.
“We understand there will be an ongoing need to support students who need credit recovery, and there is strong interest in having some form of acceleration opportunity for students,” the press release said. “We will be working with stakeholders on how these two interests can be accommodated within our two comprehensive high schools and at Henderson Bay High School.”
