Weast Cuts 49 Central Office Positions...and 300 School Positions

In a memo to staff on Friday, March 26, 2010, Superintendent Weast announced the elimination of 300 school based positions and 49 central office positions. 


Superintendent Weast attempts to make a comparison of those cuts as "apples to apples" by lamenting the 18% cut in central office staff over the last 3 years. Are the cuts to MCPS' central office comparable to the elimination of classroom teachers?


As readers of this blog already know, Superintendent Weast could have cut 111 administrators and saved every single school based position.  


As a reminder, according to the Maryland Fact Book (page 9), MCPS has 6,709 non-instructional positions, cutting 49 hardly seems like a dent.


For your information, the Office of Organizational Development mentioned in the memo below currently employs 135 people with a budget of $25,194,941. 


If this office was REALLY being eliminated no classroom teacher positions would need to be cut at this time.

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Sent: Friday, March 26, 2010 10:29 AM 
Subject: Budget Update from Dr. Weast 
March 26, 2010


To my colleagues,

When I wrote to you earlier this month, I made it clear that we would continue to communicate with you about the FY 2011 Operating Budget and the impact that it would have on you and your colleagues. I’m writing to you today to continue that conversation. 

As many of you are aware, the County Executive’s budget proposal for MCPS is $137.7 million lower than the budget submitted by the Board of Education. This translates to about $1,000 less per student for the next fiscal year. While we are working hard to minimize the impact on our staff and students, we have had to make some very difficult decisions over the past several weeks.

Earlier this month, we announced that we were planning to increase class size by an average of one student per class and make other changes that would eliminate nearly 300 positions in our schools. Principals are in the final stages of making those staffing decisions and notifying the affected employees.

This week, we announced $6.5 million in cuts to our central office staff that will include the elimination of 49 positions and of some specific initiatives, as well as lead to the reorganization of some of our central office functions. The biggest change is that we are eliminating the Office of Organizational Development (OOD).  The different units and functions within that office will be moved to the Offices of Human Resources, Curriculum and Instructional Programs, and the Chief Technology Officer.  A more detailed explanation of these changes will be included in the April 6 issue of The Bulletin.

As we have had to make reductions throughout the district, we have put a particular emphasis on protecting our classrooms and school-based services and our budgetary decisions reflect those priorities. Including the FY 2011 cuts, we have reduced central office services by 18 percent over the last three years. In that same time period, we have reduced school-based services by less than 3 percent. These reductions are requiring us to rethink the way the central office delivers services and support to our schools, but our commitment to excellence remains the same.

I want to emphasize that none of the changes or reductions we are making in central office or in our schools are a reflection of the performance of the people who are in the impacted positions. Many talented individuals are having their positions eliminated.  It is an unfortunate reality in these difficult economic times that such gut-wrenching decisions must be made. 

As we head into Spring Break, I want to say once again how proud I am of the work staff is doing on behalf of MCPS’ 142,000 students and of the professionalism you are displaying during these uncertain times.  I hope that everyone has a chance to relax and returns refreshed and ready to finish the school year strong.  Despite our economic challenges, you are doing outstanding work to provide a world-class education to all students.

Respectfully,

Jerry D. Weast, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools