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PSS may cut jobs • Alternative offers hourly or reduced salary rate
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Posted on Dec 23 1998
The Public School System had escaped a 10 percent wage cut, all right, but nonrenewals of job contracts for nonteaching staff look inevitable in March.
About 270 custodians, janitors, counselors and school principals would be affected if the nonrenewals go ahead. But Education Commissioner Rita H. Inos said several options are being considered in order to keep some, not all, of them.
She said: “We would have some abilities to hire some back. But there would be no hiring all at one time.”
Anthony Pellegrino, education board member, said one option might be to reduce their salaries or offer them hourly wage rates. However, if school principals agree to tap their operational funds for salaries, then they might be kept as support staff, he said during Monday night’s board meeting.
A last-minute fund injection of $1.7 million has averted salary cuts among teachers and PSS staff. The cuts would have taken place next month.
William Matson, acting fiscal and budget officer of PSS, said the funding boost makes allocation for salaries sufficient up to June 18.
To realize more savings, PSS has decided not to fill vacancies. The school system expects to save $500,000 from the resignation or retirement of 60 employees.
Already, Inos had proposed to the governor to tap government employees with B.A. degrees to teach.
“This would provide your staff with a chance to showcase their expertise and help our schools that are short of teaching staff,” she told the governor in a letter.
A combination of cost-saving and fund-juggling has allowed the school system to rein in its payroll deficit from $4.4 million to a forecast of $400,000 by the end of fiscal 1999.
