DCPS budget cuts

[Anonymous]

Can people state what positions are being cut at their childrens' schools (if it has already become public information) to get an overall idea of the impact on students? It is my understanding that an average of 2-4 positions per school are being lost. The Mayor puts out her final budget on March 20th. Don't hesitate to make your voices heard.

I will start: School without Walls High School - Performing Arts teacher and Foreign Language Teacher.

[Anonymous]

The entire DC government is in a fiscal crisis. School budget are being cut MUCH less than the rest of the government.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, they should cut positions in central office and leave the teachers alone.

[Anonymous]

Is there a memo that announced the cuts? Are these RIFs? Are we really in a financial crisis or is this punishment to the Unions?

[Anonymous]

Our school doesn't share this info very freely. You have to dig and rely on word of mouth. I think we are losing some paras but am not sure (and this don't want to list the school of im wrong).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there a memo that announced the cuts? Are these RIFs? Are we really in a financial crisis or is this punishment to the Unions?

There really is a financial crisis. DC has lost a ton of tax revenue due to WFH. This was made up for some time by Covid relief from the feds, but that's ended. This year we're seeing the impact of commercial real estate leases expiring and companies giving up office space, plus property tax assessments going way down as a result of these factors (our property tax assessment on our condo went down for the second year in a row, too).

Compounding this is that the unions did negotiate raises which were overdue, but they are hitting in a year when there is simply less money to go around. That means schools are going to have to cut staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there a memo that announced the cuts? Are these RIFs? Are we really in a financial crisis or is this punishment to the Unions?

There really is a financial crisis. DC has lost a ton of tax revenue due to WFH. This was made up for some time by Covid relief from the feds, but that's ended. This year we're seeing the impact of commercial real estate leases expiring and companies giving up office space, plus property tax assessments going way down as a result of these factors (our property tax assessment on our condo went down for the second year in a row, too).

Compounding this is that the unions did negotiate raises which were overdue, but they are hitting in a year when there is simply less money to go around. That means schools are going to have to cut staff.

Thanks for responding. I thought we were always in a surplus. Also, is there a connection with our cities high real estate prices and taxes going to our schools.

I need to look more at businesses downtown. Our city has killed mom and pop shops. Everything is big box and are they paying their tax share?

The federal & DC government is returning but remote work has been written into ppl’s job descriptions so what's next? Schools can't suffer.

[Anonymous]

Someone told me that all the 130K teachers need to watch out. Is this true? As to say our system is too top heavy.

[Anonymous]

Nothing like having to go to your parking meter or change parking spots throughout the day especially in schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Someone told me that all the 130K teachers need to watch out. Is this true? As to say our system is too top heavy.

Things don't work that way. Non-tenured staff lose their jobs first and there are so many of them, any cuts won't cause more senior staff to lose jobs. A minimal number of tenured staff may end up teaching different classes though or class sizes will increase.
Some districts offer "early retirement" incentives though. I have friends in another state that offered BOTH a one time 20K bonus to retire AND staff could state their intent to retire (helping schools know how many high earners could be off loaded) up to 4 years in advance. Those staff members are getting full 6% raises every year up to their stated retirement date. This means their pensions will be significantly higher too. Many staff are taking the option. It's a win for the staff who retire and a win for the school budgets. And with so many younger staff leaving early, too, there's lots of places with more than half their staff with 5 years of fewer years of experience. This is great for budgets, not so great for student outcomes, but it is what it is.

[Anonymous]

It would be helpful to know if any cuts are expected at Central

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would be helpful to know if any cuts are expected at Central

At minimum they are cutting open positions and not backfilling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would be helpful to know if any cuts are expected at Central

It has been reported somewhere that 10% - not sure how many are open positions or people. Schools have to cut people because DC funds position. I think DC budgeting is lazy. There are ways to budget personnel costs outside of the formula based budget model. The whole system is lazy and uncreative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Someone told me that all the 130K teachers need to watch out. Is this true? As to say our system is too top heavy.

All teachers cost the same in the budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be helpful to know if any cuts are expected at Central

It has been reported somewhere that 10% - not sure how many are open positions or people. Schools have to cut people because DC funds position. I think DC budgeting is lazy. There are ways to budget personnel costs outside of the formula based budget model. The whole system is lazy and uncreative.

The central budget cut is about $50 million, which they said was 10% of positions. They have said nothing about who is losing their job.