Employees To Be Cut At St. Landry Parish Schools

The St. Landry Parish School Board for months has been talking about the need to do major cutbacks to rescue a budget that saw more money going out than coming in. This week members of their school board had to make a tough decision out some of the positions at areas schools. The St. Landry Parish School Board voted 7-4 to lay off 68 employees.

The St. Landry Parish School Board has been working up to the this for months, and four weeks they voted for a change to one of their policies. When the members gathered for their meeting in May, they voted on a change to revise the reduction policy because layoffs were on the way.

The Board vote was a temporary move to make the change to the personnel policy. Now, any of the support workers will have the same ability as any of the certified personnel to try to get a their previous job if they get laid off as part of a restructuring move.

So who is part of the support staff? Well, those are positions like people who work in the cafeteria, are part of the custodial staff, secretaries, and the bus drivers, while a certified employee would be an administrator or teacher.

The move to consider layoffs has been going on for months, after the Legislative Auditor’s Office told the St. Landry School Board that it was necessary that they work on a plan to circumvent their nearly 4 million dollar budget deficit.

The sixty-eight lay-offs will be for the 2012-13 fiscal year, and those getting the notice came from a list put together by the acting Superintendent Joseph Cassimere. The change means the district will save 3.3 million dollars.

Those most affected are school nurses, teachers who teach English as a second language and teacher aides.