Fourteen more teachers will be laid off at Pontiac High School and Pontiac Middle School because enrollment dropped by 800 students more than projected, from a total of about 7,200 last year to 5,968 this year.
The unexpected drop in enrollment of 800 students more than projected — the greatest majority at the high school and middle school levels — means the financially struggling Pontiac school district will lose $6 million of its $7,500-per pupil state funding, said Jumanne Sledge, associate superintendent of organizational development and human services, in a report to the Pontiac Board of Education Monday night.
The district also is faced with the additional state cut planned for all Michigan school districts of $160 per pupil and the possibility of another $127 per-student cut still in the works.
Besides more layoffs, the district plans three other “bold steps” to reform unapproved staff spending and unapproved overtime practices that have cost the district hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years, said Sledge.
The new layoffs are in addition to a workforce reduction of an estimated 76 teachers, who were laid off before the semester began as part of a district restructuring. Eight schools were closed to right-size the district to enough buildings to educate about 9,000 students instead of 20,000.
Sledge said the staff reductions will still maintain studentteacher ratio at teacher contract requirements, but save $780,000 this year and $1.9 million next school year. In addition, some principals in buildings where there is more than one will be moved to other district positions to avoid the cost of hiring new people to fill those jobs.
The administrative adjustments are expected to result in a cost savings of $650,000 in the district’s budget.
Sledge said the district also is looking at possible changes in expenditures for alternative education. The district has a contract with a private entity for $650,000 to operate Bethune school.
In order to lay off the 14 teachers and follow union contract rules, the board had to approve the layoff of the least senior persons all the way up to the teacher actually targeted for lay off and then recall all those not being laid off. This means 14 teachers will receive only layoff notices and 86 teachers will receive both layoff and recall notices.
The greatest impact will be at the middle and high school. Sledge said there were 442 students fewer at the high school for an enrollment of 1,756, instead of the projected 2,200, and close to 50 fewer at the middle school, where enrollment is just more than 800 instead of at the projected 950.
Pontiac Education Association President Lance Davis said Tuesday that he and district human resource officials were going over the list of names. The board actually approved the layoff of 16 teachers, but the expected recall of two physical education teachers reduces that number to 14.
Davis objected to the number of layoffs after the meeting Monday night. He estimated the district only needs to lay off as few as six or a maximum of eight teachers in response to the enrollment decline.
“Missteps are being made at the detriment of the students and teachers alike,” Davis said. He said the problem of declining enrollment wasn’t created in one year and can’t be fixed in one year.
“The teacher layoff is a drastic measure that will have a negative impact on the dispensing of education. It seems the target to try and balance the budget continues to be aimed at the teachers union and not looking at other areas.” Davis said.
Sledge said with lost of funding and declining enrollment, the district has to do things differently. Other cost-cutting measures are planned in addition to the layoffs.
“We have to pause and say do we hem and haw or do we pay attention to the handwriting on the wall and do something different?
“If we continue down this path, we will be extinct,” he said, referring to the history of the school district funding programs and operating buildings for more students than are enrolled and borrowing from the emergency fund to do it. The emergency fund was depleted by the end of the 2008-2009 school year, auditors reported recently.
The “bold steps” recommended by Sledge and his team include revising or eliminating activity that has been the norm in recent years.
One step will be to eliminate the practice of allowing employees to write $250 checks for miscellaneous items, which cost the district $15,200 this year before it was stopped Sept. 1, $300,000 last school year and $252,000 in the 2007-2008 school year.
Another step is putting a moratorium on all overtime. Employees have been working overtime and then turning their hours in. Now the only overtime that will be paid is that which is pre-approved by supervisors.
“This has made some people uncomfortable. But we can’t pay overtime for what people are expected to do in their regular hours,” Sledge said.
The third step is employees can no longer arbitrarily create purchase orders on their own, a practice Sledge said he has never seen in another district in which he worked.
Now employees must first request approval, then fill out a purchase order.
Contact staff writer Diana Dillaber Murray at (248) 745-4638 ordiana.dillaber@oakpress.com.
The unexpected drop in enrollment of 800 students more than projected — the greatest majority at the high school and middle school levels — means the financially struggling Pontiac school district will lose $6 million of its $7,500-per pupil state funding, said Jumanne Sledge, associate superintendent of organizational development and human services, in a report to the Pontiac Board of Education Monday night.
The district also is faced with the additional state cut planned for all Michigan school districts of $160 per pupil and the possibility of another $127 per-student cut still in the works.
Besides more layoffs, the district plans three other “bold steps” to reform unapproved staff spending and unapproved overtime practices that have cost the district hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years, said Sledge.
The new layoffs are in addition to a workforce reduction of an estimated 76 teachers, who were laid off before the semester began as part of a district restructuring. Eight schools were closed to right-size the district to enough buildings to educate about 9,000 students instead of 20,000.
Sledge said the staff reductions will still maintain studentteacher ratio at teacher contract requirements, but save $780,000 this year and $1.9 million next school year. In addition, some principals in buildings where there is more than one will be moved to other district positions to avoid the cost of hiring new people to fill those jobs.
The administrative adjustments are expected to result in a cost savings of $650,000 in the district’s budget.
Sledge said the district also is looking at possible changes in expenditures for alternative education. The district has a contract with a private entity for $650,000 to operate Bethune school.
In order to lay off the 14 teachers and follow union contract rules, the board had to approve the layoff of the least senior persons all the way up to the teacher actually targeted for lay off and then recall all those not being laid off. This means 14 teachers will receive only layoff notices and 86 teachers will receive both layoff and recall notices.
The greatest impact will be at the middle and high school. Sledge said there were 442 students fewer at the high school for an enrollment of 1,756, instead of the projected 2,200, and close to 50 fewer at the middle school, where enrollment is just more than 800 instead of at the projected 950.
Pontiac Education Association President Lance Davis said Tuesday that he and district human resource officials were going over the list of names. The board actually approved the layoff of 16 teachers, but the expected recall of two physical education teachers reduces that number to 14.
Davis objected to the number of layoffs after the meeting Monday night. He estimated the district only needs to lay off as few as six or a maximum of eight teachers in response to the enrollment decline.
“Missteps are being made at the detriment of the students and teachers alike,” Davis said. He said the problem of declining enrollment wasn’t created in one year and can’t be fixed in one year.
“The teacher layoff is a drastic measure that will have a negative impact on the dispensing of education. It seems the target to try and balance the budget continues to be aimed at the teachers union and not looking at other areas.” Davis said.
Sledge said with lost of funding and declining enrollment, the district has to do things differently. Other cost-cutting measures are planned in addition to the layoffs.
“We have to pause and say do we hem and haw or do we pay attention to the handwriting on the wall and do something different?
“If we continue down this path, we will be extinct,” he said, referring to the history of the school district funding programs and operating buildings for more students than are enrolled and borrowing from the emergency fund to do it. The emergency fund was depleted by the end of the 2008-2009 school year, auditors reported recently.
The “bold steps” recommended by Sledge and his team include revising or eliminating activity that has been the norm in recent years.
One step will be to eliminate the practice of allowing employees to write $250 checks for miscellaneous items, which cost the district $15,200 this year before it was stopped Sept. 1, $300,000 last school year and $252,000 in the 2007-2008 school year.
Another step is putting a moratorium on all overtime. Employees have been working overtime and then turning their hours in. Now the only overtime that will be paid is that which is pre-approved by supervisors.
“This has made some people uncomfortable. But we can’t pay overtime for what people are expected to do in their regular hours,” Sledge said.
The third step is employees can no longer arbitrarily create purchase orders on their own, a practice Sledge said he has never seen in another district in which he worked.
Now employees must first request approval, then fill out a purchase order.
Contact staff writer Diana Dillaber Murray at (248) 745-4638 ordiana.dillaber@oakpress.com.
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