The Springfield School Board will hold a special meeting at 6 p.m. next Monday to decide whether to cut an estimated 56 teaching positions.
The reduction is part of a planned $5.3 million in budget cuts next year.
Some teachers had expected a decision about layoffs at Monday night’s meeting, which was attended by dozens of Springfield Education Association members. The confusion began late last week, when the SEA called a meeting for new teachers and a rumor began to spread that those teachers would soon begin receiving pink slips.
SEA president Dan Ford said union leaders also met with district officials to clarify matters.
“We believed some action would be made tonight — which teachers would be (terminated),” Ford said. “We later found that wasn’t the case.
“But we still believe it’s important for the board to see that our members are here,”
he said. Our members care about what (the board) is doing. And our members are watching what they’re doing. We certainly feel like we have a right to be at these meetings and to hear what the board is thinking.”
School Board President Art Moore said newer teachers are always among the first to be terminated as a result of budget cuts. But he said not all of the district’s youngest teachers would lose their jobs.
“There’s not like a first- and second-year over-arching cut. (These are) just the positions that are recommended to be removed from the budget,” Moore said. “Ultimately, the positions that get cut would impact younger teachers.”
District officials also have been saying that many of the teachers whose jobs are cut will have a chance to fill vacancies.
Ford said he expects that the teaching positions targeted Monday would be the last teaching positions to be cut for next school year.
“We’re hoping to walk out of here Monday knowing where we’re at exactly,” Ford said.
Pete Sherman can be reached at 788-1539.
Read the original article from The State Journal-Register.