How are your districts responding to budget cuts in terms of loss in personel?

Karen Rae - posted on 06/15/2009

My district offered a different preschool teaching job with a 25% cut in pay. Only one more year and it's retirement for me :o)

Susan - posted on 06/15/2009

MY private school just asked/told us that we were all going to have a 5% rate reduction this coming year...I guess it's better than a pink slip...

Tammy - posted on 06/14/2009

Drastic cuts - our administration is still "sorting out" the official number across the District but our buidling is projected to lose 22 students so they eliminated 5 teaching positions and we expect to have class sizes of 31-32 students (6-8 building) even though that violates our contract

Kimberly - posted on 06/14/2009

I work for the private schools in my county, and they have let several people go from each school (seniority.) Then, they also froze salaries for the year even if a school had the money in its budget (ours did.) Honestly, I think some school closings may need to follow soon since some of them are just draining money out of the system. It sucks to do that, but all the schools are suffering because of a couple.

Karen Rae - posted on 06/13/2009

Our district cut our special programs, CDC and BASC programs. 85 people lost their jobs.

Danah - posted on 06/03/2009

Our district is on a hiring freeze at the moment. Teachers that are retiring or just leaving...well, they are not going to replace them. They are shifting teachers around to cover the loss. Certified teachers are being moved back to regular grade level positions and their former positions, such as computers, art, and music will now be taken over by aides to help save cost.

Marissa - posted on 06/03/2009

Wow. This really scares me. I had a great job in Texas, but had to leave since I married into the military. We live in Germany now and I haven't been teaching since I couldn't get hired with DoDDS. I'm looking forward to moving back stateside so I can get a job but after reading these posts I'm getting very nervous. I'm currently getting my masters just to keep my loans on deferrment. OMG. I hope things come around in 2010. What was once a high demand field no longer seems to be.

Kelly - posted on 05/23/2009

In my district at mid-year they cut some clubs, after school activities, JV sports, some field trips, golf, and building subs that took effect in January. Next year we are cutting LTAs, french, computer classes??, aides, and some 12 month positions are changing to 10 month position. We are voting on opening the contract to look at our health insurance, to possibly change our prescription plan. I think I may missing some things.

Christy - posted on 05/22/2009

In my school district all 1st year teachers were RIFed and class sizes are going up to 30 (yes 30 in third grade next year!), no summer school, limited extra pay positions, contracted buses instead of owning buses (I don't know how that cuts costs, but administration says it does), technology scaled back - every room was supposed to get a SMART board, but now one per grade level...at least we got our lap tops this year. I am grade level team leader so I won't be moving, but many teachers are moving around to fill the open positions that have been vacated by first year teachers. This isn't as bad as it was about six years ago. All first and second year teachers were RIFed...about 100 teachers!

Jennifer - posted on 05/14/2009

This is disheartening to read about. I live in Washington and everyday I watch something in the news about our state cutting education funds or giving out pink slips to teachers. I'm a new graduate with a masters in education and am having a hard time finding a position because there aren't any available. I hope things start looking up and soon.

Terry - posted on 05/13/2009

No pay raises the NM state legislature voted that we have to put in the 1.5% in retirement that the district pays but no loss of personnel so far. Class sizes will be increased. I don't know how that's going to look for classes that already have 30 or more students.

Marci - posted on 05/06/2009

Our district receives Impact Aid from the federal govenrment. Our community is surrounded by federally owned land, so the Impact Aid money helped save a lot of teaching positions. 2 days were cut from our contracts and some positions will not be filled. Supply budgets were also cut, but we all still have our jobs.

Holly - posted on 05/05/2009

We lost all professional develop monies last year as well. I am in Special Ed and we used to have a $30.00 a month budget, we lost that as well.

Holly - posted on 05/05/2009

Our levy is being voted on tonight. We will lose 32 teachers and most of our inclusion assistants. Also, the high school students will only be able to take 5 classes vs the current 7.

Sapphire - posted on 04/30/2009

Yes, it is a ton of cut backs because the bond override did not pass last year. Without that safety financial net, the district was forced to evaluate the spending habits and look at a lot ways to cut corners. So the district developed a 3 million dollar phase out over the next 3 school years. It stinks being told we can't go to a conference unless we pay for it ourselves. Personal teacher budgets are long gone too. Department budgets decreased, but we're all in the stinky financial boat. I'm in Arizona, by the way.

Juanita - posted on 04/30/2009

Wow, Sharon. That's a lot of cuts.
I forgot they cut back on the principals' funds for things like conferences, our departmental budgets for supplies shrunk, no new books, etc.
They got rid of our busing program a long time ago. Granted, I work in a HS district (only 6 HSs), so the district can subsidize the cost of bus passes for students who need transportation.
From what I can tell, our district is really trying to protect jobs, but they are cutting back on a lot of discretionary spending.

Sapphire - posted on 04/30/2009

Oh Juanita's post also reminded me that out district has implemented salary freezes, so no one got a raise. We cut out many after school activities at the elementary level, so that meant the after school busses were cancelled. Pay to Play sports program at the middle/high school. Charging teachers $25 a semester to keep mini-fridges in their classrooms (since it runs the electricity 24/7). Summer school was cut at the elementary level, but it is charged for at the middle/high school level to help supplement the cost of transportation and summer school salaries.

Juanita - posted on 04/30/2009

the teachers voted to forgo pay raises, so no one got pink slips. we also deferred out COLA adjustment in April.

they cut back on programs like summer school too.

Sapphire - posted on 04/30/2009

My district had to RIF (reduction in force 'pink slip') 1st year teachers in the district and any teacher on an emergency certification. Only those Special Education hard to fill poisitions were excluded.



Classes were elimintated-for example, at several elementary schools four 5th grade classes have been condensed to only three classes.



Middle/high school-Teachers are being asked to teach over their prep times (with a stipened of course). This allows several teachers to share one full-time position without having to hire anyone.



Many classified positions have been eliminated and merged too.