10 CCS Staffers Learn Their Jobs May Be Cut

2-19-10

Paterson Budget Ax May Pare $600,000, School Board Fears


By JIM KEVLIN : COOPERSTOWN

Ten Cooperstown Central School staffers, including a half-dozen teachers, have been advised they may be laid off if a $600,000 cut in state aid in Gov. David Paterson’s proposed budget remains in place.
With Supt. of Schools Mary Jo McPhail out of town for the President’s Day vacation week, full details were not forthcoming. 

Nothing is firm.  However, it’s said these are some of the areas administrators and the school board are discussing:
• French would no longer be taught.  Students who have been studying the language would be able
to fulfill their requirement for graduation, but no new students would be accepted.  Spanish and Latin would remain.
• One of two tech teachers would be eliminated, and the workload of the two would be consolidated.
• Some sports teams might go. 

The options will be aired at the CCS board meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 3, when the administration will unveil its preliminary budget for 2010-11, according to school board President Tony Scalici.
Further public input will be sought the following Wednesday, he said.
While areas of reduction have been discussed, “that’s not something that’s been decided,” he emphasized.  “The only thing that’s real is there will be a presentation on the third and a detailing of what is being looked at right now.”
Judging from past years, a governor’s budget is “almost always, if not always, the worst number,” Scalici said.  Thus, the first pass is a worst-case scenario – “we start with the Doomsday” – and it usually gets better, he added.
Employees facing possible layoff were advised of their status on Thursday, Feb. 11, the day before school was let out for the break, according to Mary Leonard, school board vice president.
“Everyone whose positions are being reviewed has been notified,” she said, adding the school board is looking to class size and enrollment to help guide decisionmaking.
She also emphasized there are “no definite layoffs,” but that the school board concluded that, out of fairness, people who might be affected should get as much advance notice as possible.
Scalici said the two forums held in the past month were intended to get public input on priorities, but they weren’t particularly well attended.
The school board will first have to determine the non-negotiables – offerings that are state mandated – then examine the options within its control.