Board plans 76 teacher layoffs

By Harold Gwin

The superintendent said the district is anticipating a major drop in enrollment.

YOUNGSTOWN — The city school board is laying off 76 teachers for the next school year, which begins July 1.

The cutbacks approved Tuesday are expected to save the district $4.8 million in salary and fringe benefits in the 2008-09 school year.

The layoffs will reduce the number of teachers to 585, said Damon Dohar, assistant superintendent for human resources.

The Youngstown Education Association teacher contract requires that teachers be notified of impending layoffs by the end of April each year.

The school board cut about 80 teachers one year ago as the district began reacting to declining enrollments and a $15 million general fund deficit.

Superintendent Wendy Webb has proposed cuts that will total $7.1 million for 2008-09. That includes 13 administrative posts cut by the school board in March and about 51 clerical, custodial and other position layoffs to be approved by the board in May or early June.

Board member Dominic Modarelli asked if the teacher cuts will hurt the district’s academic programs.

“Those are the kind of issues that make this hard to do,” Webb replied, explaining that the administration treads a fine line in trying to make reductions that have minimal impact on learning.

The teacher cuts for next year are based on enrollment, she said.

Youngstown had 7,700 children enrolled this school year, but Webb said the projected enrollment for next year is only 6,000.

Board members seemed surprised by the prediction.

Webb, however, said there are reports that a couple of new charter schools may open locally and the state EdChoice voucher program (which allows pupils in poorly performing schools to enroll in select private schools with the state picking up the tuition tab) is expected to have a bigger impact next year.

Some local school districts are also looking at offering open enrollment for the first time next year, which could also work to reduce Youngstown’s pupil population, she said.

“We think that we have cut deep enough to protect ourselves,” Webb said of the teacher layoffs.

Hopefully the district won’t lose 1,700 children next year and some of the teachers being laid off now can be recalled, she said.

Teacher retirements could also result in some recalls, Dohar said, noting that the district has been alerted to three possible retirements.

Charter, voucher and open-enrollment schools are already taking more than 3,500 pupils and about $26 million a year in state subsidy money away from the Youngstown schools, according to school officials. The money follows the children to their new schools.

gwin@vindy.com