The Kansas City Star
The Kansas City School District this week cut more than 200 jobs, but teachers are still waiting to find out their fate.
Superintendent John Covington had promised when he took the job a year ago that teachers would not have to wait until mid-summer to learn that they had been laid off.
But July has arrived and the district won’t be ready to notify teachers before next week.
“Yes, it was our goal to have it completed by now,” Covington said Thursday. “Given the fact that the task of rightsizing has been far more arduous than what was anticipated, we’re taking time to make sure we’re getting it right.”
The district tried to make teacher assignments at the end of the school year, the first week of June, but made too many errors and had to retract the letters it sent teachers.
“We were rushing, and now people are in limbo,” Covington said.
The administration worked with the teachers’ union to ease the number of involuntary layoffs by devising a buyout offer and creating a more intense process for critiquing teacher performance.
While those efforts have been relatively well-received, the delay in assigning teachers is exhausting patience, said Andrea Flinders, union president.
Last year, the previous administration closed a much smaller number of schools, but did not get the recommendations to the Board of Education until June, forcing staff to make layoff decisions in July. One reason Covington pushed for an early decision on closings was to avoid such late personnel decisions.
“The mood is not good,” Flinders said. “We’re almost in the same position as a year ago. People have been patient — but it’s time.”
The district projected it would cut more than 700 jobs, including about 285 teaching positions.
While the specific number of teacher trims remains unknown, the district is expecting to lay off 350 to 400 people overall — including the ones who lost their jobs this week, Covington said.
The fact that the district spent about $5 million to buy out the contracts of 220 teachers and principals plus 75 support staff employees has reduced the number of involuntary layoffs, Covington said.
The district also identified 80 teachers whose contracts were not renewed for performance.
“It’s been a very stressful week,” he said. “It’s a hard thing to do. However, we feel good that buyouts … have softened the blow.”
This week’s cuts to nonteaching positions affected all departments, said Christopher Lyon, the new director of human resources.
Departments most severely affected included janitorial, maintenance and food services, he said.
In most cases, cuts were made in accordance with collective bargaining contracts. But the district reorganized its secretarial and clerical positions, requiring all of those employees to reapply, including taking a typing test.
“No departments were spared,” Lyon said.
During his administration’s first year, Covington determined the district needed to cut some $50 million from its budget. While he had anticipated a large number of school closures, the scope grew larger than he originally expected.
“If we chose not to close as many schools as we did, we’d be done by now (making staff cuts),” he said. “But if I were to do it all over again, my recommendation would be the same.”
To reach Joe Robertson, call 816-234-4789 or send e-mail to jrobertson@kcstar.com.
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