Pink slips delivered to Lynn school employees

LYNN-The Lynn School Department mailed, as well as delivered, approximately 120 layoff notices to teachers, clerks and aides Thursday morning as employees anxiously await the results of next Wednesday’s School Committee vote which will determine if teachers and administrators can take a furlough day to save jobs.
As expected, Superintendent Catherine Latham met with principals Thursday morning to inform them of layoffs and changes at each school, and to hand them layoff and classroom closure notices to be hand-delivered to each employee.
Along with classroom and aide positions, layoffs could also affect libraries and librarians at some schools, including Classical High where the library remains closed due to construction.
While the Lynn Teachers Union joined clerks and administrators Wednesday in agreeing to work a day without pay to avoid the layoffs, the notices still had to be mailed out Thursday as that is the day Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. set as a deadline to inform employees their positions had been terminated.
Most, if not all of the layoffs would be rescinded if the School Committee votes to accept the furlough days at its meeting Wednesday. If the committee fails to support furloughs, all layoff notices sent out Thursday will take effect March 16.
“The next step is the School Committee meeting, but I am very pleased to hear of the vote of the Lynn Teachers Union,” said Latham. “There are approximately 120 layoffs that may happen (if the committee rejects the furlough day) but we also sent out many more letters because of seniority issues.”
Teacher seniority is one of the many factors that make sweeping layoffs difficult, especially in a district as large as Lynn. As Latham explained Thursday, the first step in organizing layoffs is to determine which classrooms can be consolidated. For example, if one grade at one school has three classes of 20 students, those classes would be combined in to two classes with 30 students each and one position would be eliminated.
The problems arise if that position is held by a teacher with a lot of seniority. Because of that seniority, that employee would not be laid off, but still receives a notice that the classroom is closed.
As a result, the department must then identify a teacher with less seniority or who is working without certification who would also receive a layoff notice, thus moving the teacher with seniority in to a new position.
“We have sent out a lot of letters, some are layoffs, others are ‘your position has been eliminated’ letters,” said Latham. “Every situation really is different at every school. We have to go down the list and see how many positions are gone. We have to cover all of our bases.”
The layoffs are the result of a $500,000 cut in the salary line of the school department’s budget, half of a $1 million overall cut in the education budget.
By teachers and administrators taking furlough days, the department should be able to salvage those jobs for the remainder of the year and avoid moving students from classroom to classroom right before MCAS testing begins.
Latham was quick to point out the cuts being made for this year, fiscal year 2009 which runs through the end of June, are different than those made next year and some classrooms or programs that are cut at the end of this year may return next year, while other programs that remain through this year may be cut in 2010.
The fiscal year 2010 budget will be a challenge in its own right, as funding from the state is expected to be level at best as the cost of service continues to rise.