Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Cuts plan delayed again
Dayton school Superintendent Percy Mack said today that the district will not announce this week the revised plan for $9.4 million in cuts — including teacher layoffs — that is scheduled to go into effect in January.
The news that cuts were being considered was first made public on Oct. 21. The board then voted on Oct. 25 to approve a five-year financial forecast that included the proposed cuts. At that meeting, Mack said there was a chance some cuts in academic programs could be removed from the plan and replaced with cuts from outside the classroom. He said a revised plan would be ready in “a couple weeks.”
Two weeks later, on Nov. 7, Mack and board President Gail Littlejohn said the revised plan would come soon, certainly before Thanksgiving. Today, Mack would not state a new deadline for the revised plan.
But other factors should still force final decisions within three weeks.
The teachers’ contract says anyone being laid off must have 30 days notice. The original proposal said most cuts would go into effect on Jan. 7, which means the board would have to notify those folks no later than Dec. 8.
Coincidentally, the union and the board just set a new date for talks on a new contract — Dec. 8. In theory, those who worried the board could use the threat of deeper cuts to force union concessions should be able to rest easy. Unless things change, the cuts will have to be decided before the two sides next sit down to meet.
Meanwhile, students from Stivers School for the Arts picketed the board offices this afternoon. The group had planned to address the board tonight, but the meeting was canceled when board member Clayton Luckie resigned. State law requires a full compliment of board members before a meeting can be held. Luckie, who was elected state representative on Nov. 7, was appointed last week to fill the last month of Dixie Allen’s term.
The Stivers students are upset about proposed cuts in adjunct faculty, who provide the art and music instruction that the students say make Stivers a high performing school.
Mack said today that he is “optimistic, but not overly optimistic” that some academic cuts can be restored. What cuts stay and what comes out of the plan remains to be seen.
He said the holdup in announcing the revised plan centers around two problems. The first is the need to carefully check to be sure all changes adhere to union contracts. A worst case scenario is to discover after the fact that someone who was told their job is safe must later be cut because of mistakes in following procedures.
The other problem is high school scheduling. Electives will be cut and administrators must be sure those cuts don’t end up preventing students who are following individualized plans toward graduation from getting a course they need to graduate.
I’ll have more in tomorrow’s Dayton Daily News.
UPDATE: Here’s today’s Ddn story about the delayed plan.
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