School Board Approves Staff Reduction Plan

Editor's note: Attached to this article are the reduction-in-force plan, the year-to-date budget, and the entire press packet (agenda) from today's meeting.

Original report

Enrollment numbers that have dropped in some areas and that have remained flat in others are set to spur staffing cuts in the .

Paulding School Board members at this morning’s meeting are slated to take action on a reduction in force procedure. Associate Superintendent Brian Otott says the district’s policy on reductions in force requires system leaders to present to the board a plan for cutting staff if and when it is required.

Otott says district staff will present to board members a plan that will outline next year’s job cuts by school level.

“The positions being discussed here are not being driven by budget cuts as they are driven by our enrollment,” Otott said Monday. “In the past couple of years, there have been significant budget challenges, and we’ve had to cut additional staff to meet our budget. In this particular case, the staff reductions we’re talking about are related to loss of student population and changing enrollment.”

Prior to board action on the reduction in force will be a presentation on the school district’s financial picture. Otott says the presentation will show board members the current state of the school system’s financials.

“There’s really not going to be any forecasting—that’s going to be year-to-date where we are with the budget,” he said. “The board may have some questions when we talk about the reduction in force about where we are with the fiscal year ’13 budget, but we’re not going to have an overall presentation on that.”

The meeting agenda is attached to this article in PDF form.

The board meets at 8:30 a.m. in the central office boardroom. Return here at 8:30 a.m. for live coverage of the meeting.