SCHOOLS CEO says cutbacks hurt kids

The school district has 69,000 pupils and a budget of $700 million.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- The leader of Cleveland's public schools said she expects worsened attendance and lower pupil performance in the coming school year due to budget cuts designed to close a projected $100 million deficit.
The board of the Cleveland Municipal School District voted 9-0 Tuesday to approve cuts that will eliminate 1,400 jobs by the time school starts in the fall.
The district has issued 873 layoff notices, including 618 teachers. In the recent school year, the district had 8,470 full-time employees, including about 6,000 teachers.
Barbara Byrd-Bennett, the school district's chief executive officer, said the district had expected about 500 employees will leave on their own through retirement or other reasons, based on attrition averages of the past four years. But that number is not final, and teachers do not have to give retirement notice until July 10.
What's behind this
The number of teachers and others laid off will depend on how may employees eventually leave voluntarily, Byrd-Bennett said.
Officials of the 69,000-pupil school district, which has a $700 million budget, blame the deficit on lower state funding than anticipated, higher health care costs than anticipated and lower property tax collections.
"There is no doubt in my mind that student attendance and academic achievement will suffer, and there is no doubt in my mind that much of the progress we have made will either slip or come to a halt," Byrd-Bennett said Tuesday.
The district's financial problems could worsen if voters don't approve a tax increase in November, Byrd-Bennett said. The specific amount of the tax and how much it would raise have yet to be determined.
The jobs being eliminated involve teachers, administrators, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, secretaries and security guards. Some school bus routes are being changed or eliminated.