Rochester City School District’s Proposed Layoffs

Written by Jasmine

If you have been keeping up with the Rochester City School District budget gap saga, then you’d know the future of our schools is looking bleak. So much so that a federal investigation was opened this past Monday to look into the mysterious $30 million budget deficit. Even the New York state comptroller, Tom DiNapoli, began auditing the district’s finances.

So what is there to do now? Well, Superintendent Terry Dade has announced proposed mid-year layoffs for teaching and administrative staff in Rochester city schools. According to Rochester Teachers Association president Adam Urbanski, the district plans to lay off 152 teachers, 32 non-teaching employees, 22 paraprofessionals and 12 administrators.

Urbanski states, “Although we still do not know which teachers will be laid off, affected teachers are supposed to get their notices from their principals this Friday. The mid-year layoffs, if enforced as planned, will have an adverse impact on all of us and on our students.”

Teachers and staff have been rallying against the proposed cuts in the name of the students who will be so adversely affected. They plan to hold a protest on Thursday to urge the Board of Education to make the right decision.

“The reality is when you take five, six, seven teachers in special ed, in ESL, in math, in science — out of a building and lay them off, those students are still there,” Teacher and Chair of RTA Action Committee Michael Tobin said. “Do they end up in a class that’s now doubled? Do they move themselves to a new school to accommodate placement?”

All great questions with long awaited answers.