DCPS budget cuts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Since the pandemic the DC Council and Mayor have added lots and lots of unsustainable spending. This spending was covered by the temporary pandemic aid which is now gone.

Yes, businesses are paying their fair share. There's less of them now due to the pandemic, work from home, crime, etc.

Some combination of spending cuts and tax increases. There is a lot of spending that can be cut but it's up to we the people to push the Council and Mayor. They've made a lot of bad spending decisions these last few years.

[Anonymous]

Our neighborhood elementary school is relatively small and of the 50ish staff members I heard 8 are being cut. A mixture of partner teachers, classroom teachers, and reading and math specialists. Class sizes will go up and less intervention groups will be pulled. 🙁

[Anonymous]

MY ES is looking at a science teacher, coach, co teachers, and partner teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MY ES is looking at a science teacher, coach, co teachers, and partner teachers.

What is a co-teacher?
and what is a partner teacher?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MY ES is looking at a science teacher, coach, co teachers, and partner teachers.

What is a co-teacher?
and what is a partner teacher?

Curious: For elementary school - isn't science taught by the classroom teacher? If not - why not? This feels like something that could be covered within the classroom and if cuts need to be made a good place to start

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MY ES is looking at a science teacher, coach, co teachers, and partner teachers.

If you ever had a science teacher, co teacher, and partner teacher, you had more than 99% of dcps elementary schools.

[Anonymous]

$50 million is a huge number. Goodness! I need to pay attention to what’s going on.

[Anonymous]

Maybe we don’t need gym teachers making six figures

[Anonymous]

For some reason I thought this was a situation where they say we don’t have money then they find it after the community meetings & protesting. Don’t we do this dance annually?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For some reason I thought this was a situation where they say we don’t have money then they find it after the community meetings & protesting. Don’t we do this dance annually?

Normally yes but this year they increased most budgets but positions are still being cut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe we don’t need gym teachers making six figures

Gym teachers earn their pay and then some. You try and control 30 kids in a gym and see how you do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe we don’t need gym teachers making six figures

A good PE teacher is worth six figures! That’s a hard job if done right, and not for everyone. I don’t know how much my kid’s teacher makes but she is awesome, one of the best teachers in the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe we don’t need gym teachers making six figures

A good PE teacher is worth six figures! That’s a hard job if done right, and not for everyone. I don’t know how much my kid’s teacher makes but she is awesome, one of the best teachers in the school.

Agreed and even in HS. My kids at JR have had mostly excellent PE teachers; they understand the assignment and make it as fun as possible for the kids. I have one athletic kid and one non-athletic kid, and both felt like gym class was a positive place. I don’t think that’s easy to do with teenagers, many of whom would never take gym if it weren’t required.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MY ES is looking at a science teacher, coach, co teachers, and partner teachers.

What is a co-teacher?
and what is a partner teacher?

Curious: For elementary school - isn't science taught by the classroom teacher? If not - why not? This feels like something that could be covered within the classroom and if cuts need to be made a good place to start

we have a dedicated science classroom and a teacher, and it's one of the specials for the kids.

[Anonymous]

JR is cutting around 20 positions. Most of the cut positions are currently unfilled.

One teacher per department on average will lose a job is my guess. It’ll be the newest hire or the uncertified person.