Cuts Concern Hundreds of Teachers (nearly 200 Hartford teachers losing their jobs)

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: MSNBC

Next academic year, Hartford schools will have fewer teachers and staff under Superintendent Steven Adamowski's proposed $283.6 million budget.

The budget calls for cutting 254 positions. That's eight percent of the Hartford Public School's workforce.

"It’s not good news, but it is better news than we had anticipated," said Ada M. Miranda, the Chairman of the Board of Education. "We had been talking a few weeks ago about 365 positions. It’s gone down considerably.”

About 198 of the layoffs are school staff including teachers. The rest are positions at the Central Office.

"We will all feel the pain," Miranda said. "But I think the way the cuts have been handled, we are staying focused on the bottom line and it's going to help us get through these challenging times.”

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29501082/

[ShockediSay]

1. What happened to the stimulus money, Connecticut? n/t

[Pale Blue Dot]

2. They WERE going to cut one hundred more.

For me, that's the very definition of this "stimulus" bill: slightly fewer job cuts now, pay for it later - and only costing $700 Billion!

[1monster]

3. Our school district had a $15 million cut last year which resulted in the loss of 200 teachers and

only God knows how many support staff as well as other cuts.

This year, the state legislature is cutting a further $33 million from our school district budget along with the warning that it may be cut further.

And Florida (currently) doesn't qualify for the Stimulus for schools because our budget is less now than it was in 2006.

If a $15 million cut resutlted in the loss of 200 teachers and a huge amount of support staff, I'm not sure what how many staff losses will result from a $33 plus million cut will be. I don't know how they could possibly cut 400 more teachers and a like amount of support staff.

I've worked for the school district for nearly eight years and my job is probably on the chopping block.

I have sympathy for the Hartford school; we've been there and done that. Now we are going far beyond that.