The Flint School District is planning over one hundred layoffs, the Flint Journal reported.
139 teachers and faculty in Flint will receive pink slips, with the staff cuts going into effect the day after school gets out on June 10.
While the interim superintendent emphasized the possible rehiring of many of these teachers at the end of June, the school district’s deficit reduction plan calls for firing 150 teachers over the next three years.
The Flint School District has three years to chop away at a $15.6-million deficit. If the deficit isn’t eliminated by their 2015 deadline, the district could lose state funding.
As the Associated Press reported in March, the cash-strapped district plans to shut down four schools in an attempt to cut costs.
Cuts in Pontiac
The Flint district isn’t the only one facing staff cuts. Over in Pontiac, the city’s school district is pledging to make “massive reductions” to its staff, The Detroit News reported.
In the face of dropping enrollment numbers, state officials are concerned that Pontiac public schools won’t be able to reduce its $37.7-million deficit by the allotted deadline. Without releasing exact numbers, the Pontiac School District said they would comply with pressure from the state, promising to reduce staff under their six-year, deficit-reduction plan.
As The Detroit News reported, the Pontiac public schools have already faced cuts from the state after not cutting enough from the district's expenditures:
The state Department of Education withheld the district's state school aid payments for March and April after it failed to make "sufficient progress" on eliminating its deficit.
- Melanie Kruvelis, Michigan Radio Newsroom
