School layoffs are accelerating as declining enrollment, failed levies and other financial pressures piled on top of administrations already facing the expiration of ESSER relief funds.
Superintendents and their teams are making tough choices—and tough announcements to their communities— as they finalize 2023-24 spending plans that they say can only be balanced with, in some cases, substantial staff reductions. In Washington, the Marysville School District conducted its first round of teacher and staff layoffs on Monday, notifying a few dozen employees that their jobs will end along with the 2022-23 school year.
Marysville’s leaders said they have already “reduced district-level administration,” trimmed educational programs and frozen spending in most areas as the district grapples with declining enrollment, inadequate state funding, failure to pass a levy in 2022, and the end of ESSER funding. Further reductions will likely mean larger class sizes and fewer elective courses, among other impacts, the district said in a message to the community.
“The district’s goal is to be fully transparent in this process,” Director of Communications Jodi Runyon said. “To this end, the district has conferred with bargaining groups to provide information on the state of the budget. The district updates families, staff, and the community as new information becomes available.”
In a bit of good-ish news, voters in Bozeman, Montana approved three levies that will reduce the number of layoffs the local school district will have to make to balance its budget, NBC Montana reported. The Bozeman School District will still have to cut about 20 teaching positions as it trims $4.1 million from its spending plan, Superintendent Casey Bertram told the station.
The sting of staff layoffs
On the opposite coast, the Vernon Township School District in New Jersey is laying 45 full-time staff—most of which are teachers—to cover a budget shortfall made worse by $8.5 million in state aid reductions in recent years, News12 reported. And officials in Brockton Public Schools in Massachusetts say an $18 million deficit forced them to eliminate 130 certified positions. The district, which issued layoff notices on Monday, has seen enrollment drop by about 1,350 students since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, WCVB reported.
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Non-certified staff will be laid off in the coming days. “While we are confident that our five-year district improvement process will encourage new families to move to Brockton, unfortunately, our current enrollment does not support existing staffing levels,” Superintendent Michael Thomas said in a statement to WCVB. “This is in no way a reflection of the incredible work that our educators do every day.”
And in Detroit, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti says layoffs coming ahead of the 2023-24 school year will mainly impact central office administrators and temporary employees. Detroit Public Schools Community District is cutting COVID-specific positions such as nurses who administered free coronavirus tests during the pandemic, Vitti told Michigan Radio.
“The day-to-day learning and teaching experience of teachers and students will not change,” Vitti told the station. “And that’s intentional because the core of what we do happens in the classroom. And the core of what we do is about raising student achievement.”
