Recently Laid-off Teachers Could Be Called Back

The 59 teachers to be handed pink slips Friday could be back on the job sooner rather than later.

According to Superintendent John Savel, teachers could be called back before the end of the month.

The Trenton Board of Education voted unanimously Monday to and to eliminate two administrative positions. The positions eliminated are the transportation director and the supervisor of accounting.

Teachers are scheduled to be notified Friday at which point their names would be made public.

There is no deadline for teacher callbacks, and Savel said they could begin late this month and continue until the beginning of the 2011-12 school year.

Dennis Bearden, board of education president, said the district is letting go more teachers than they need to fiscally, because board members are unsure which teachers will be needed at the start of the 2011-12 school year.

Board members approved a resolution giving Savel the authority to recall any laid-off teacher as needed based upon the economic conditions of the district and consistent with the applicable collective bargaining agreements and the governing laws.

“No one likes to make cuts,” Savel said. “And we’ve always tried to keep them (budget cuts) focused on the low hanging fruit and to be kept them away from the classroom. There is no more low hanging fruit.”

Savel added board members recently took full-day kindergarten off the chopping block. In a previous board meeting Savel proposed cutting full-day kindergarten, but it recently has been removed from the list of proposed cuts.

“People are concerned that it's something the kids need and that it could cause a problem, where some parents may take their kids to another district,” Savel said.

Fewer teachers would mean larger classes, and Savel hopes to call back as many teachers as possible to reduce class sizes. If Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget does not pass, especially parts of the budget that send public school funds to community colleges and universities, class sizes would not change as drastically.

As it stands, classes at the elementary level would increase to between 20 and 38 students and middle school classes would be between 36 to 40.

Bearden said the class sizes are difficult to anticipate at the high school level because board members won't know what classes students take next school year until after they select them.

“The board fully understands the importance of smaller class sizes and we are going to work toward that and we want some help from some other areas like the state and negotiations,” Savel said.

Though he said he could not discuss negotiations, Savel added that the district is trying to make it so every school carries its fair share. One item being negotiated would force all public employees to pay 20 percent of their health care costs, while the state pays the remaining 80 percent.

According to Savel, Snyder’s cuts are going to cost the district about $1 million, and even if employees began paying 20 percent of health care costs, the district would still have a budget shortfall of about $400,00.

If not for teacher layoffs, Savel said the budget would be in deficit about $3.8 million dollars.

Even after all of the current proposed cuts, the district still faces a budget shortfall of about $610,000.

“We are going to keep looking for more ways to balance this (budget), but as of now it (the budget shortfall) could come from the fund balance,” Savel said. The fund balance is currently at about $1.3 million.

Savel said the one positive thing to come out of reducing teachers is that parents have begun getting more involved in district happenings. Some parents are writing letters to Snyder telling him how they feel about the proposed funding cuts.

A public hearing for the 2011-12 budget is scheduled for 6 p.m. June 13 at the Neil E. Van Riper Administration Building, 2603 Charlton Road. The regularly scheduled Board of Education meeting is set to follow the hearing at 6:30 p.m.