District of Columbia Public Schools
News Release
Office of
Communications and Public Information
825 North Capitol Street. NE • 7th Floor • Washington, DC 20002 •
Tel: (202) 442-5635 • Fax: (202) 442-5498 www.k12.dc.us
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, December 9, 2003 |
CONTACT: Linda Wharton Boyd (202) 724-4222
Weekend/Evenings (202) 727-6161 |
DC PUBLIC SCHOOLS PREPARES FOR ABOLISHMENT OF 771
POSITIONS
"Letters Abolishing Up To 545 School And 226
Non-School Jobs To Be Sent This Month"
Washington, DC - The District of Columbia Public Schools
(DCPS) administration has begun implementing the Board of Education's
November 19th vote directing Interim Superintendent Elfreda W.
Massie to cut enough positions from the budget to yield the $21 million
necessary to balance the FY 2004 budget. Planning has begun to abolish
an estimated 771 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) positions by the end of the
first semester, including preparing draft letters to as many as 545
school employees and 226 non-school employees to be sent within the next
15 days.
Achieving the $21 million in savings requires cutting $38
million in personnel costs from DCPS's budget since almost half of the
school year will have passed by the time the cuts are implemented.
"Restructuring central office is the first step in
this difficult process," said Interim Superintendent Massie, who
was instructed by the Board to make the personnel cuts in a manner that
best serves educational purposes. "We are streamlining central
office and cutting as deeply as possible without eliminating critical
support services to schools. Our goal is to minimize the school cuts
necessary to hit our $38 million target. But we will make the permanent
cuts necessary to keep our budget balanced."
DCPS will be using the abolishment process to make these
reductions. The Superintendent is working with top administrators to
identify position abolishments in central office departments. For
abolishment of schools positions, DCPS's educational leadership team is
obtaining input from principals regarding those positions that would
least impact instruction and local school management. The abolishment
process will require the use of the Competitive Level Document Form (CLDF)
for one round of lateral competition whenever applicable to a position
(i.e. where "less than all" of a particular type of position
is being eliminated).
The anticipated timeline for completing the position
abolishments is as follows:
By December 12, Superintendent to
determine positions to be abolished.
By December 19, all principals and
managers to complete the CLDF process for all those positions where
"less than all" of a particular type of position is being
eliminated.
By December 29, the Office of Human
Resources to verify the CLDF information, certify residency and military
service, and issue separation letters to employees as appropriate.
January 29 is the effective date of
separation (30 days later), which is the last day of the first semester.
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