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| Philadelphia School District Cuts Coming? |
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 by: Rebel - Havertown, PA
started: 04/28/11 8:37 am | updated: 04/28/11 8:37 am |
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According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, facing an "unprecedented" fiscal crisis, the Philadelphia School District could shed 3,820 employees - 16 percent of its workforce - and is planning for more painful cuts, including losing full-day kindergarten.
At a hearing on the district's $2.7 billion budget, Chief Financial Officer Michael Masch told the School Reform Commission (SRC) that to close a $629 million gap, the district must also make painful trims in areas ranging from gifted and alternative education to transportation and counselors. Class sizes will go up; individual school budgets will go down.
A still-soft economy, flat city revenues, and sharp cuts in state aid combined with the loss of federal stimulus money have hit the district of 155,000 students hard, Masch said.
For the first time in decades, the district's total revenues will decrease. Masch projected that the district's revenues will drop by 12 percent, or $377 million. Under the current proposal, the district stands to reduce its central office by 50 percent, or more than 400 positions. It would cut 1,260, or 12 percent, of its teachers. Almost 650 noontime aide positions would be lost, along with nearly 400 custodians, more than 180 counselors, and 51 nurses. The actual number of layoffs is not clear. The district has offered an early-retirement incentive, but the number of staff taking advantage is not known.
Cuts would hit classrooms hard. Each school's discretionary budget would be reduced by about 30 percent. Common planning time would be wiped away completely. There would be a 50 percent cut to gifted education, a 30 percent reduction to vocational education, a 20 percent reduction to services for English-language learners, a 9 percent reduction in instrumental music, and a 5 percent reduction to special education.
There would be cuts to nurses (10 percent), psychologists (6 percent), and athletics (7 percent), including the elimination of interscholastic athletics in middle schools.
Facilities would take a 16 percent cut. School police would take a 9 percent cut, including a reduction of 190 per diem officer positions.
The transportation budget would be hit particularly hard, with a 44 percent cut. The district will bus only those pupils it is legally mandated to - special-education and charter students.
Under state law, if the district does not bus its own regular-education students, it is not required to bus nonpublic students, officials said.
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