Due to the uncertainty of future funding, the Bloomfield Board of School Trustees on Thursday night agreed to send "Reduction in Force" notices to three staff members whose salaries are paid from grant money.
The deadline for notification of a possible Reduction on Force (RIF) is April 15, according to the district's master teaching contract with the Bloomfield Teacher's Association.
The salaries of the trio staff members are supplied through federal Title I grant sources.
"Right now, there is no federal budget. They are still working through that. We will not know concerning the Title 1 funds until probably late May at the earliest. At that point if the funds come through, we will then reinstate them (the RIF teachers)," superintendent Dan Sichting said. "With that in mind, I want to make clear that we have (federal) Education Job Fund money that has to be spent by next August, 2012. But we will be using it also or can potentially use it."
Sichting said early reports from the Legislative Services office in Indianapolis suggests a significant cut in state revenue for the district in 2012 and 2013 budgets.
He also pointed out that the district's reduction in the 2011 budget will amount to $328,709.49 -- that up from the $295,948.98 reduction handed down after Gov. Mitch Daniels ordered a state-wide cutback in funds in Dec. 2009.
"There is a lot of uncertainty right now in terms of federal funding and state funding. We are doing this (Reduction in Force) to keep our options open as we move forward. We do have some Jobs Fund money that we can use. I will tell you that I am not panicking. Nobody in this room should panic," Sichting explained. "Last year, we were cut $295,000. We made the cuts to balance our budget without reducing a teacher. We're looking at another cut in two years of $347,000. We will look at the things that we have to do to balance our budget. I'm a firm believer that you can't spend more than you have. We will do what we have to do to make cuts and live within our means."
The Jobs Fund account has a current balance between $215,000 and $250,000, according to Sichting.
A similar RIF notification was made last year to three Title I teachers, who were eventually reinstated before the school year started in August when federal funds were released.