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BOE stands firm vs PSS furloughs
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Posted on Apr 18 2008
The Board of Education says it is firm in its commitment to preserve personnel funds and will not approve a furlough of personnel or reprogram personnel funds to cover unbudgeted utility expenses.
The BOE had previously approved “drastic” measures that included the furlough of the Public School System’s 836 employees and the shutdown of the entire PSS in anticipation of the Legislature’s failure to pass a new budget before May 1.
However, BOE chairwoman Lucia Blanco-Maratita is now saying that “enhanced efforts will be made to conserve energy by closing schools during the summer vacation period to attain a utility cost savings.”
Blano-Maratita said that the Public School System is seriously considering going back to the traditional school calendar and open schools the day after Labor Day to realize additional month of utility savings.
She explained that by doing this, “It would reduce the utility expense for this fiscal year” and that “it would also allow PSS an additional month to recruit hard-to-fill positions in special education and upper level high school mathematics.”
Blanco-Maratita said the BOE is working with the Legislature on finding the additional funds that are needed to cover the unbudgeted utility expenses. She explained that conservation coupled with some additional funding is the solution.
“The effort to make certain that every child has the opportunity to achieve success in school also requires adequate funding from the Legislature and the central government,” Blanco-Maratita said.
She added that, “We want to continue the nine year trend of improving student scores on the SAT10 and other assessment. We want this to become a 10-year trend.”
The Sat10 will be administered next week from April 21 to April 25.
