The Sunday Enquirer (Cincinnati, Ohio) July 11, 2010

HEADLINE: Layoffs looming for teachers

Economy catches up to education

By Michael D. Clark

Schoolteachers - say hello to America's recession.

One of the largest employment groups in the nation - about 3.2 million public school teachers - mostly dodged the tsunami of layoffs and unemployment that has decimated the private sector since the onset of the nation's recession in late 2008.

But now layoffs loom large over many Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky teachers - as they do for many instructors across the country - education officials said.

"The very nature of public education tends to place it one or two years behind the rest of the economy, whether it be in reducing staff or expanding programs," said Scott Ebright, spokesman for the Ohio School Boards Association.

"When schools have cut programs to the bone, the only thing left to cut is staff, which nobody wants to do," Ebright said.

At the end of May, U.S. Department of Education Director Arne Duncan visited Cincinnati Public Schools and warned the nation that without an additional $23 billion in federal spending to offset coming cuts in state educational funding, Ohio, Kentucky and other states would see sweeping teacher layoffs in the coming school year.

The federal government's $787 billion economic stimulus package of 2009 was touted as saving an estimated 300,000 education jobs last school year.

But federal money for schools has dried up, while the nation's recession lingers, and projections for future state school aid call for historically deep cuts in funding.

There are no recent statewide statistics on teacher layoffs, but school officials agree that widening local budget cuts coupled with recent events have the numbers piling up fast.

"School districts are not just using attrition to reduce staff, but they are laying off staff in order to remain solvent," said Tom Ash, director of governmental relations for Ohio's Buckeye Association of School Administrators.

Those layoff numbers are likely to accelerate locally with the recent and unexpected announcement that Duke Energy plans to cut its personal property tax contributions to area districts by about 40 percent.

That surprise loss of tax revenue has many area districts scrambling to recalculate downward their operating budgets for the coming school year.

Personnel costs on average make up about 80 to 85 percent of all public school operating budgets.

So when state aid dwindles and local school tax hikes, which provide the majority of funding for local schools, are reduced or rejected by voters, teachers soon start getting pink slips.

"It's grim out there," says Joan Lewis from her rural Warren County home.

More than most, she knows.

Until June 2009, Lewis was earning $50,000 annually in her 21st year of teaching in Warren County's Little Miami Schools, where she grew up and graduated.

Now, the 53-year-old education veteran is still on the outside looking in after a year of job hunting.

Still, she considers herself fortunate, since she pulled in $16,000 last school year as a substitute teacher.

"So many teachers have been laid off. I haven't even had a call back for an interview. It's tough out there and a lot of teachers are like me. They just want a job," Lewis said.

Not a pretty picture

Around the nation, states are also slicing funding for public schools.

A recent report by the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that 41 states face mid-year budget shortfalls totaling $35 billion.

Ohio Education Association officials declined to comment on teacher layoffs, but Patricia Frost-Brooks, president of the Ohio Education Association, said recently "it's a mistake to cut school funding - and issuing pink slips to teachers is not a solution to solving the state's deficit problem."

Roger Effron, a Madeira-based school consultant who has monitored the local teacher job market for more than 16 years, says it's the worst he has seen in four decades.

"Compared to the last 40 years, we are now seeing most Ohio districts posting their 'no vacancy' signs for job seekers. It is not a pretty picture," says Effron, a former personnel director for Cincinnati Public Schools.

Little Miami, which has suffered multiple tax levy defeats and will soon be under state control, has implemented layoffs, cut busing, increased class sizes and closed schools.

"We continue to lose staff on a daily basis here ... and I'm sure we'll see more losses in the next few weeks," said Dan Bennett, Little Miami Schools Superintendent.

At Butler County's Lakota Schools, the second largest in Greater Cincinnati with 19,000 students, more than 50 teacher jobs have been eliminated, with prospects for more cuts.

At the 10,200-student Fairfield Schools, 33 teacher positions are gone, with more reductions a possibility.

And at Hamilton County's Forest Hills Schools, the last school year saw $2 million in staffing reductions, eliminating 46 positions - 18 teachers among them.

At Cincinnati city schools - Ohio's third largest school system - teacher layoffs have been avoided so far, if only because the state deadline for notifying teachers of layoffs passed earlier this spring prior to Duke Energy's announcement to cut its tax expenditures.

But layoffs will likely jump in the 2011-12 school year, Cincinnati officials said.

Cincinnati officials estimate a $30 million-plus deficit going into the 2011-12 school year. They expect to cut hundreds more positions, and teacher layoffs will be unavoidable, they said.

Northern Kentucky schools are less affected, but perhaps not for long.

Kentucky schools are funded primarily through the state and do not rely nearly as much on local tax revenue as do Ohio public schools.

Districts in Northern Kentucky have so far avoided major layoffs this year mostly through long-term planning.

In Campbell County Schools, a district of about 5,000 students, no teaching positions will be lost for the 2010-11 school year.

Only eight teaching positions were cut prior to this past school year.

"We really haven't had to cut many positions, but we also haven't added any," said Mark Vogt, the district's finance director.

The district has avoided major teaching cuts through central office consolidations, some reduced bus routes and budget reductions in areas such as maintenance.

In the Kenton County School District, with about 14,000 students, staffing will also remain the same this coming school year, but that's because the district cut $3 million last year and reduced expenditures by $1 million through methods such as energy savings.

Boone County Schools is the state's third-largest district with about 19,000 students.

It was prepared to cut 60 certified and classified jobs this coming school year, but was able to keep them thanks to some federal stimulus money, and by dipping into the district's contingency fund.

"If the state's economy doesn't pick up, and if the federal government doesn't renew our stimulus money, we're looking at potentially losing those 60 people next year," said Superintendent Randy Poe.

He said class sizes, however, will go up this year, with the district expected to gain 500 new students.

"We're not laying off, but we're having to absorb those students with the staff we have, which will have a definite impact on class sizes," Poe said.

In Butler County's Edgewood Schools, voter rejection of a renewal of an existing operating tax, which if approved again would not raise property taxes, has forced the district to cut 90 positions, most of them teaching jobs.

Officials and parents are bracing for crowded classrooms.

Edgewood resident Melissa Lohrey, who has two children in school, said, "I'm terrified the kids will get lost in all this shuffling around.

"The mood in the community is frustration. We feel like our hands are tied and we can't do anything about what is happening," Lohrey said.