The school district's hiring freeze has now been expanded to include middle school and high school teachers and elementary school teacher assistants.
Previously, teachers had been exempted from the districtwide hiring freeze that went into effect Feb. 6. Supt. Del Burns said teachers and teacher assistants are now in the freeze because of the uncertainty over the temporary budget plan that will be adopted by the state.
A state budget won't be in place before the new fiscal year begins on Wednesday. The General Assembly is now working on a continuing resolution to keep the lights running.
Burns said they're hearing that the continuing resolution could result in deeper K-12 education cuts than had been projected earlier this year when principals were told to only fill 95 percent of positions.
The timing isn't great for year-round schools, which are wrapping up classes on Tuesday before beginning a new school year on July 7. Year-round schools were not exempted from the teacher hiring freeze, which went into effect Thursday.
One piece of good news is that the hiring freeze doesn't affect teacher positions at elementary schools.
Comments
WCPSS Budget relating to teachers.
Mon, 06/29/2009 - 19:32 — SDR256Considering the proposal of a budget adjustment made by cutting a proposed 750 - 1000 teachers. Of course many of these items are also critical, but just to consider - are teachers the first place to cut?
Wake County Public School Budget, 2009 - 2010
(http://www.wcpss.net/budget/2009-10-bpb/2009-10-bpb.pdf)
(equivalents assume 1 teacher salary average = $50,000)
$151.5 million for auxillary services..... (= 3030 teachers)
$85.6 million for instructional services........ (= 1712 teachers)
$17.6 million for administrative services ......(= 352 teachers)
$21.5 million for technology services ......(= 430 teachers)
$7.6 million for organizational development & support..... (= 152 teachers)
$5.5 million budget for Communications....... (= 110 teachers)
$2.45 million for area superintendents...... (= 49 teachers)
$1.5 million for Growth and Planning Department, 20 employees .....(= 37 teachers)
$1.3 million for the Board of Education...... (= 26 teachers)
$312,790 County Superintendent Del Burns' salary...... (= 6 teachers)
(compare with $135,854 for the Governor of North Carolina.
compare with $400,000 for President of the US )
The remaining 952.8 million is for schools (people, supplies, training) ....(= 19,056 teachers)
$17 million County dollars spent by WCPSS on busing. (= 340 teachers)
$46 million State dollars spent by WCPSS on busing. (= 920 teachers)
$63 million total spent on transportation (= 1260 teachers)
Please join WSCA to elect four new Board of Education Candidates in Oct. who will put education first, listen to the public and consider fresh ideas to evolve and improve our school system!
Surprise!
Mon, 06/29/2009 - 12:07 — g88ky07I'm not sure I get why "The timing isn't great for year-round schools" so Mr. Hui can expand on this??
This system is going to completely tank thanks to the boe, lack of funds and Bev "no clue" Perdue before it's over! Yes education needs funds, but start with cutting the waste (FYR waste, busing waste, admin. waste, operational waste...)
To Bev, and her "old-school" followers, you have NOT even begun to trim the fat yet! You have NO idea of the TRUE reality all around you as you sit on your golden throne! Once you do, THEN talk to me about a tax hike, until then I and most of the rest of us won't support giving you another dime!
"One piece of good news is that the hiring freeze doesn't affect teacher positions at elementary schools. "
YET!
But, if you're a teacher at an under capacity forced year round elementary school in Horace Tart's district you still may not have a job in 3 weeks and it has nothing to do with the budget!
Here's a example. Durant
Mon, 06/29/2009 - 13:14 — KeungHui (author)Here's a example. Durant Road Middle won't be able to fill a sixth-grade teaching vacancy on track 3. They'll have a sub until the budget is sorted out.
With this example they
Mon, 06/29/2009 - 16:09 — g88ky07With this example they can't fill a track 3, 6th grade spot, but the way this is being handled at under capacity forced year round schools is by collapsing the class/track, so where's the problem?
It seemed to be just fine for several FYR schools to just fold up shop and tell the teachers they aren't needed and tell the parents and kids they are now on a different track, so why is it a problem for others to conform and deal with it?
Obvious?
Mon, 06/29/2009 - 13:10 — Bob_SconceThe freeze is due to the budget uncertainty. Once the budget gets nailed down and schools know what they can expect from the state, the freeze will likely go away and be replaced with some sort of cap on new hiring.
If you're the principal of a traditional calendar school that opens in August, you can probably wait out the uncertainty -- the budget will probably be set and approved in the next few weeks. But, if you're the principal of a year-round school that has a bunch of openings, you don't have that luxury.
In a sensible world, the school district wouldn't start school until after the money for the school year had been appropriated.