Weast puts out revised cut list 10 days before County Budget presentation

From Superintendent Jerry Weast's March 4, 2011 Memo to Staff:

...To that end, the staffing allocations released today call for the potential elimination of more than 600 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions across the district. These reductions are not made easily because I know that they will be felt in every school and will no doubt impact nearly every employee, directly or indirectly. But, we must assume that our budget request will not be fully funded as we plan for next year. It would be irresponsible of us to wait until a final budget is passed in May to make these decisions and nearly impossible to implement at such a late date.

Among the very difficult budget reductions we are planning for:

-         An average class size increase of 1 student in elementary and middle schools and 0.4 student in high schools, resulting in the elimination of 168.4 FTE teaching positions.
-         A reduction of 23 FTE academic intervention teachers and 51.4 FTE staff development teachers.
-         Reductions in instructional technology system specialists, data assistants, lunch hour aides, media assistants, para-educators and other crucial positions that provide and support direct instruction to our students.

As you are aware, I released a list of possible budget reductions in late January. We have made some adjustments to that list and I am attaching it to this email so that you have the most current list.  I want to be clear that while we hope that we will not have to make any of these reductions, we must deal with the reality of the situation before us and provide staff and principals ample opportunity to make plans and adjustments...

Staffing Allocation March 4, 2011