Kristy Deer, Daily Reporter

    NEW PALESTINE — Southern Hancock schools have begun laying off employees. 

    Superintendent Jim Halik allowed principals at Brandywine Elementary School, Sugar Creek Elementary School, Doe Creek Middle School and New Palestine High School to inform those affected by the cutbacks. None were teachers. 
 
    While two employees at Brandywine and two at Doe Creek were told earlier this week that their jobs were being eliminated, a handful of employees at the high school and at Sugar Creek are being let go today. 

    Ten employees were given severance letters announcing their last day is today. 

    Halik said the realities are sinking in. 

    “We’ve spent $71,750 in January and the same in February more than the state is going to pay us,” Halik said of the need to make reductions in staffing immediately. 

    The administrative office also dismissed a part-time receptionist. 
 
    New Palestine Elementary School was the only district school that did not lose any non-teaching staff in this first wave of layoffs. 

    The school system has already made several adjustments with energy management; four-day work weeks in the summer; reduction of classroom assistants and salary freezes for teachers. 

    The county’s other school systems also are on the verge of making cuts as part of a state-mandated reduction in expenses. School boards at Greenfield-Central and Eastern Hancock, for example, will hear more about possible budget cuts at their meetings on Monday. G-C Superintendent Linda Gellert is expected to make detailed recommendations to the school board. 

    The Mt. Vernon School Board recently voted not to fill more than 80 extracurricular positions. That was Mt. Vernon’s first pass at reducing personnel, and it will save an estimated $100,000, Superintendent Bill Riggs told the board. That leaves the school system with an additional $915,000 to cut.