Lowndes County School District will non-renew the contracts of all 64 of its first-year teachers at next month’s board meeting as a way to save $3 million next fiscal year.
The move will effectively eliminate more than 10 percent of the district’s 415 current teaching slots. However, Superintendent Lynn Wright said, he believes the district will rehire most of those teachers to fill vacancies created by year-end attrition.
Each year, Wright said, the district replaces an average of 45 teachers it loses to resignation, retirement or relocation. The first-year teachers released from their contracts will have the opportunity to apply for those spots, and he believes all but about 10 to 15 will be placed.
“We’ve been talking to our principals and they’ve been talking to their people,” Wright said. “We have encouraged (first-year teachers) to get certain certifications because they know some of those people are retiring out, (they) are trying to make sure they qualify for some of these other spots.”
Overall, Wright said the net loss of more than 60 teaching slots (which he said will save the district roughly $50,000 on average in salary and benefits) will make up more than half of the $4.5 million LCSD needs to avoid a budget shortfall in the 2019-20 fiscal year. This year’s budget is projected to suffer a $2.5 million shortfall and LCSD in November had to borrow against its anticipated ad valorem collections to make payroll — a loan Wright said the district has already repaid.
He added the district previously made hires when the district’s revenue was strong. At this point, Wright is working with administrators to “trim the fat.”
“Whenever they can add additional staff members they’re requesting them,” Wright said. “Well it’s not a big problem when you have the funds to do it. When you don’t have the funds, now we’re having to go back and look at the different areas and say, ‘Hey, look, is this person certified in this and this? Can they teach this class too, rather than us having another teacher?'”
Other cost savings will come in transportation and equipment, he said.
Area school districts, namely Columbus Municipal School District, are pouncing at the opportunity to recruit teachers LCSD plans to non-renew. CMSD Superintendent Cherie Labat reached out to LCSD officials and sent fliers advertising a $3,500 bonus incentive for math and science teachers, asking Wright to distribute those to the first-year teachers.
“We called from a supportive standpoint,” Labat said. “Nobody likes to see any teachers get laid off or being let go. We’re just trying to keep them in the community. We want to be as supportive as possible. We are all educators and we all want what’s in the best interest of students.”
Wright showed The Dispatch a copy of the flier, then said he did not intend to distribute it.
LCSD’s board voted not to raise the tax millage rate this year, but ad valorem revenue sorely missed their projections. One unforeseen issue was a Mississippi Supreme Court decision that exempted all businesses located on airport property from paying any property taxes. That meant Airbus, Aurora Flight Sciences and Stark Aerospace properties located at Golden Triangle Regional Airport were exempt, costing LCSD about $800,000 in tax revenue for which it budgeted.
The Legislature changed the law this session, meaning that revenue will return.
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