Iowa City school district plans to cut 22 teaching positions

The Iowa City school district has announced it plans to cut 22 teaching positions for next school year as it tries to make up a budget shortfall.

The reduction includes 12 early retirees who won't be replaced and 10 layoffs, said Jim Pedersen, the district's human resources director. He added that, in his nine years with Iowa City schools, the district has faced nowhere near this magnitude of personnel cuts, although officials are hopeful at least some of the teachers will be hired back.

Teachers have scheduled a brief rally at 5 p.m. today outside the district's Central Administration Office, 509 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City.

Tom Yates, a City High School teacher and president of the teacher's union, the Iowa City Education Association, said the reductions will lead to larger class sizes.

“The more students a teacher has, the more the quality of education will diminish,” he said.

The teaching cuts come in response to a budget deficit estimated at $4.3 million to $6.8 million next fiscal year. Superintendent Stephen Murley has said he is hopeful that can be reduced to $500,000. The 10 layoffs would account for that last $500,000, officials said.

School officials statewide have warned of cuts if Republicans, who control the Iowa House and the governor's office, follow through on their avowed plan to provide no increase next fiscal year in allowable growth, which is the amount of new per-pupil spending districts receive. Democrats have proposed providing 2 percent allowable growth.

Murley said every 1 percent of allowable growth represents about $700,000 for the district. With 1 percent, no layoffs would be needed, he said. With 2 percent, the positions left vacant by early retirements could be filled.

The district is announcing the cuts now because state law says it must inform staff of layoffs by April 30. Reductions in force, as its known, are not uncommon, but the district typically hires back all of the people given notice, Pedersen said.

With the Legislature yet to act on allowable growth, Murley and Pedersen said they could not predict if that will happen this year.

“I'm very hopeful, especially at the elementary level, we'll have some of the folks back,” Pedersen said.

Of the 22 cuts, 12 will come at the secondary school level and 10 at elementary schools, Pedersen said. Who will be given a reduction-in-force notice has not been determined, but it will be first-year teachers at the elementary school level and primarily new teachers in the junior and senior high schools, he said.

The 22 positions are regular education classroom teachers, which come out of the taxpayer-supported general fund. Pedersen said the positions of six special-education teachers and five reading teachers also have been targeted. The special-education jobs come out of categorical funding and the reading teachers are paid with federal stimulus funds, Pedersen said.

Yates has said the district should use the $1.8 million it has leftover from a federal education jobs program to avoid layoffs. Murley said that money is saving the jobs of 36 low-seniority teachers.

In other cost-saving moves, Murley said the Lincoln Elementary principal is retiring and will be replaced with a half-time position and the hiring of support staff has been frozen.

Murley said over the coming months administrators will look for $2.5 million is non-personnel cuts. About 80 percent of the district's budget is for personnel costs.