Northeast School Corp. is considering an undetermined number of teacher layoffs to shore up a projected $500,000 budget decrease, but the school board signed a new teachers’ union contract Monday that officials hope will keep layoffs to a minimum.
Superintendent Mark Baker told the NESC Board of Trustees Monday that if the state budget recently passed by the Indiana House of Representatives becomes law, NESC’s funding is slated to drop by about $373,000. Couple that cut with the end of a grant funded by federal stimulus money, and NESC could have half a million dollars less to work with next year.
Baker outlined a number of areas for possible staff cuts, but decisions on layoffs won’t come until later this spring as NESC makes attempts to soften the budget blow.
The possible layoffs listed by Baker include cutting four elementary teaching positions by increasing class sizes to approximately 30, dropping one special education teacher, dropping one library media specialist, and reducing staff by combining art, music, band and P.E. positions among various schools.
“It’s all going to hurt,” Baker said of the layoff possibilities.
In hopes of keeping the layoff list as short as possible, school officials approved a new two-year teachers’ contract that includes a buyout aimed at encouraging retirements.
Under the new contract, every teacher who retires this year will receive a $25,000 retirement bonus. Baker said the buyout should save NESC money by replacing longtime teachers with lower-paid new ones. He noted that the difference in compensation between a first-year teacher and one at the top of the salary scale can be as much as $42,000.
No teachers had decided to retire this year by the normal Feb. 1 notification deadline, but they now have until April 21 to change their minds and accept the buyout.
The new teachers’ contract also includes a 1-percent pay increase next year for active teachers, but the increase can’t be called a “raise” because it won’t be counted toward the salary baseline in future contract negotiations.
Under the new contract, NESC will offer a $10,000 retirement incentive in 2012, and active teachers will receive a pay increase of up to 2 percent, depending on the number of teacher retirements.
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