Calvert's school layoffs to start in April

If we (Charles County) continue with the new high school as currently scheduled, we WILL be doing the same thing very shortly.


Calvert Recorder
Thursday, March 24, 2011
By LAURA BUCK
Staff writer

At today's Calvert County Board of Education meeting Calvert County Public Schools Superintendent Jack Smith revealed he plans to lay off $3 to $6 million worth of employees and will be starting "the first wave" in the next week or two.

He said approximately 69 employees, most of whom are teachers, have already been spoken to and told their positions might not be available in the 2011-2012 school year.

"We want to make sure the bulk of people know by the 29th of April," Smith said.

In Smith's $187 million fiscal 2012 budget he estimated having to cut about $6.6 million mostly due to anticipated fixed charges and cuts in state dollars and funding from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, or ARRA.

At Thursday's meeting Chief Budget and Business Officer Tammy McCourt also projected that Calvert County Public Schools could lose $374,371 in employee pensions shifting to the county, $559,000 in unemployment insurances and $300,000 in increases in fuel costs.

McCourt did say the school system could gain an additional $1 million in state aid should the state continue to provide its current per-pupil funding.

She said at this point health insurance costs, exact numbers on pension shifts, costs for special education non-public placements, state and county allocations and number of staffing cuts remain unknown.

"It's a bad situation; it's just bad," said Calvert County Board of Education President William "Bill" Chambers.

Smith said he was hoping for feedback on how to make the process of laying off employees "as sensitive and humane as possible in these circumstances."