Superintendent Melody Johnson sent a message to district employees Thursday afternoon telling them that considering job cuts will be unavoidable. She said it's too early to know how it will play out exactly, and officials hope some cuts could come from attrition. But as the Legislature considers significant cuts to public education due to a shortfall experts estimate to range from $12 billion to $27 billion, cuts could be deeper than originally expected.
Preliminary recommendations would slash funding for pre-kindergarten, the arts education, teacher incentive pay, college financial aid to students and many other areas. Those cuts could mean a loss of $75 million to $80 million to Fort Worth schools over the next two years if implemented.
"Over the next few weeks and months, we are going to be faced with hard decisions – the
hardest decisions I personally have ever faced in my career," she wrote to staff. But she said officials were "not rolling over and accepting as inevitable all of the dire predictions."
The district launched a funding-related page on its site to keep employees informed. It includes an area where they can ask chief financial officer Hank Johnson specific questions on the budget or to offer their own ideas on budget cuts. It also includes contact information for local legislators and news on how other districts are dealing with budget issues.
Administrators expect to detail some budget impacts and possibly recommendations to Fort Worth school trustees in February. Johnson and other area school leaders plan to meet with the Tarrant County legislative delegation next week to discuss funding concerns among others.
How about she take a huge pay cut or cut a bunch of the extra administrative staff? I am sure that won't happen, but it sure would be nice!
Posted by: Scott | January 28, 2011 at 07:52 AM
Yeah, they need to cut teachers to be able to afford Superintendent Johnson's $400,000 salary. FWISD and Johnson are a joke. FWISD is winner of the Stupitity Contest for paying Johnson's salary though. Principals and teachers run the schools and you're paying her more than alot of them combined. That makes alot of sense.
Posted by: Bob Jones | January 28, 2011 at 08:25 AM
Cut administrator's pay by 30%, and take the teacher-to-non-teacher ratio back to 3-1, rather than 1-1. We have waaay too many administrators with high salaries. Cut there first.
Posted by: Cindy | January 28, 2011 at 10:02 AM
Eliminate sports and electives and only furnish the basics for a public education. For those who expect more, let them pay for it.
Posted by: Mike | January 28, 2011 at 10:13 AM
Well its funny lets cut arts education, wow. No wonder North texas has a poor record in the arts. Hey what about cutting administration, I get do not want to lose country club benefits
Posted by: j deluca | January 28, 2011 at 10:25 AM