Seattle Schools Community Forum

Just added to the School Board meeting agenda today is an Introduction item to allow for "Authorization for a Reduction in Force" by Human Resources.   From the item (red mine): The District is projecting some budget and program changes for the 2013-2014 school year that will not allow it to maintain its current level of programs and services. In order to maintain expenditures within a level of anticipated revenues, i t is necessary for the District to make changes to programs and services and possibly complete a reduction in force of certificated staff. Therefore, it is necessary to give timely notice to people in certificated and classified positions that those positions are being eliminated. For certificated staff, these notices need to be delivered on or before May 15, 2013.  There is no indication of what programs or services they are talking about or the number of cuts. It states that this Action Report will be reviewed by the Audit and Finance Committee on...

36 certificated staff got RIF notices. Some will almost certainly be invited back (if they haven't hired on somewhere else in the meantime). According to this story in the Seattle Times, " Pink slips will go to 25 teachers and 11 elementary-school counselors in Seattle schools " The 25 RIF'ed teachers, all from middle and high schools, include: 2 art teachers 6 career-technical education teachers 3 history/social studies teachers 10 language arts teachers 4 physical education teachers The work sites of the laid-off teachers does not necessisarily match the work sites that are losing FTE. Yes, two art teacher positions will be lost somewhere in the district, but the two art teachers who got laid off will be the two with the least seniority, regardless of their work location. Also, there were reportedly 85 employees in the central office who will not see their contracts renewed as their positions have been eliminated. Only five of them are known: the five education dir...

May 22, 2009 Dear friends of Seattle Public Schools: The weather this month has been typical of Seattle in the springtime: warm and sunny one day, then cold and rainy the next. We know it will lead to summer, but sometimes it is hard to remember those bright, sunny days when it’s the middle of May and the skies are gray. Perhaps mirroring the weather outside, we’ve had a mixture of sunshine and rain clouds here at the Seattle Public Schools this month as well. On the bright side, more than 900 people showed their support for our schools by participating in the Alliance for Education’s 2009 Community Breakfast. But that good news has been tempered by the difficult decisions we have had to make recently to lay off teachers and other valued staff members in response to the State Legislature’s unprecedented cuts to K-12 funding. ALLIANCE FOR EDUCATION 2009 COMMUNITY BREAKFAST Our work in Seattle’s schools would simply not be possible without the support we receive from families, neighbors ...

UPDATE: Here is the link to the current proposals for the union contract between SEA and the district. As Charlie points out, the loss of 1 day for teachers, from 182 to 181 days, is not even in this document. I guess the district thinks they can just say it is so in a letter to teachers that was not received by all teachers and not sent in the manner proscribed by law. I heard on KING at 6 p.m. that Seattle teachers have begun receiving layoff notices. A new story has also appeared on the Times website. From the story: "District officials won't release the total number of layoffs until Wednesday, but confirmed they were in the process of notifying affected employees. In addition to those laid off this week, the district earlier told another 33 teachers — those on what's called "provisional" contracts who are mostly in their first two years of teaching — that they'll be out of work in September." A laid-off teacher at West Seattle High School say...