PRINCIPALS' HANDS TIED IN TEACHER BUDGET CUTS

PRINCIPALS' HANDS TIED IN TEACHER BUDGET CUTS
By YOAV GONEN, Education Reporter
Teachers who are let go by a school trying to make mandatory budgets cuts till must get paid by that school until they find a job at another one.

June 5, 2008 -- NY POST ARTICLE-
City principals are facing a Catch-22 dilemma as they carry out Department of Education orders to cut their school's budgets.

Many would like to do so by reducing the number of teachers.

But under a bizarre department policy, the bounced teachers continue to get their paychecks until they find a new job at another school - and their salaries come out of the budgets of the schools that let them go. (for 6 weeks and then the teachers are off their school payroll and on to the DOE's payroll)
The predicament is tying the hands of principals, many of whom indicated a desire to cut staff in order to save as much as $1 million at some schools.

The regulation means "you're not really the boss of your building," said one Queens principal.

"It means you're carrying people you really don't need. They stay on your register until they get sucked up."

While some principals are looking to shed one or two teachers, it's as many as 20 at large high schools.

The DOE - rather than the individual school - picks up the tab for "excessed" teachers only if they were dropped from schools with declining enrollment or that are being phased out.

Officials said they would help find other ways for principals to make mandatory budget cuts.

"We are committed to working with every principal who has any concerns about meeting their new budget line - item by item if need be," said Education Department spokeswoman Melody Meyer.

Teachers-union President Randi Weingarten insisted that "displacing teachers is not a viable solution."

She added, "Fewer teachers in a school means increased class size, a reduced range of courses and guidance services, and less time for teachers to spend with students."

The current school year is the first where teachers' salaries came out of the budgets of individual schools.

Typically, principals have chosen to cut after-school and Saturday activities and extracurricular programs rather than lose teachers.

The mandatory budget cuts now range from $18,362 to $1,080,751.

But the DOE is hoping those figures can be reduced if the state eliminates restrictions on how $63 million in state aid can be spent.

yoav.gonen@nypost.com