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Other Peabody News:
Bonfanti kicks off bid for fifth term
City officials give overview of budget
Search for Higgins principal narrows to two finalists
Pink slips issued to teachers and staff
by John Castelluccio
PEABODY – Pink slips were sent out last week from the Kiley Administration
Building to teachers and support staff in the wake of budget cuts approved
by the School Committee earlier this month for Fiscal 2010.
While 73 jobs were eliminated in the cuts, adding up to 54 full-time positions,
more notices were issued because of union agreements that let senior workers
bump newer ones. A notice went out on June 10 to an employee in a job
being cut and a less senior coworker in the same area of certification.
The final number of layoffs, the bulk of which are 26 teachers and 26
lunch monitors, will be less than 73, however, Burnett says. At least
six teachers have announced they will be retiring this month, Burnett
said, and then there are some non-renewals, those who take maternity leave
or others who may move on to other jobs. The School Department was required
to notify workers they could be laid off by June 15, however, regardless
of the final numbers.
He noted that one difficulty with the bumping process is that qualifications
and licensure must match up between employees involved, which can complicate
the task of easily filling the job of a high school physics teacher. Burnett
said the six retirees are coming from high school and middle school positions
in math, science and foreign language, all of which are traditionally
harder to fill.
Burnett said his goal is to place as many staff as possible back, once
the dust settles on bumping and normal attrition, but felt it was too
early to give an estimate of how many that may be.
“I think we’re going to place a significant number of them,”
he said, adding that there may be more retirements coming.
Under union bargaining agreements, laid-off workers also get the option
of first consideration for open positions.
The layoffs are part of nearly $4 million in reductions the School Committee
made in an attempt to level fund the school budget for next year.
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