ATTENTION: ALL Personnel

Massive layoffs expected in Pontiac school district

Thursday, March 5, 2009 5:23 AM EST
By DIANA DILLABERMURRAY Of The Oakland Press

All teachers and administrators in the Pontiac school district may be laid off in preparation for restructuring in the fall.

In fact, every employee in a school district union may receive a layoff notice effective June 30 if the action is approved by the Pontiac Board of Education Monday. Notices could arrive as early as Tuesday.

The news leaked out from union leadership earlier than Acting Superintendent Linda Paramore had planned.

She expected the news would reach the public on Monday, after staff was informed and the recommendation went to the board.

Paramore called all union presidents together Monday.

“In our effort to keep the line of communication open with all employees in the district, I felt it was important to talk to the union presidents about process and procedures for their labor groups,” Paramore said.

In an interview Tuesday, she said she has plans to hold staff meetings to ensure that all employees are informed.Administrators see the action as necessary because half of the district’s buildings will be closed by fall, curriculum is being changed and the high school is being redesigned to incorporate four academies.

The 7,200 students are now in district buildings that have a capacity for 20,000, and will be in nine schools that house about 10,000 students.

Merging of students and buildings and the redesign of how the high school is operated means top officials may well put different people as principals at the schools that remain open, and teachers and other employees will be reassigned according to their seniority, certification and qualifications for the jobs that remain.

It is not unusual for districts to notify a limited numbers of teachers they will be laid off the next school year if administrators plan to make staff cuts. Then they call back those they will need. But laying off all employees is unheard of in this area, said Irma Collins, president of the Pontiac Education Association.

“We are very upset about this; this is a nightmare. They’ve never done anything like this. They say they want to do this so they can place them wherever they want them to go. It is in our contract they can be placed, that you don’t get a chance to choose where you want to go.

“I am meeting with the (PEA) executive board and they will decide then what direction they will take,” Collins said.

Collins argues that the administration doesn’t need to lay off everyone; they could limit the layoffs to 100 to 160 of the district’s nearly 500 teachers, which she said was the original plan and which would be adequate.

In response, Paramore said, “We are trying to be more efficient and effective and eliminate some of the obstacles and areas we might overlook if we don’t almost lay everyone off.

“I want people to know we are taking a resolution to the board in our effort to serve the district in a more efficient matter by re-evaluating assignments of staff because of declining enrollment,” Paramore said.

Leaders want to make sure, for example, that when teachers are called back their qualifications will match up with the classes and age level they will be teaching.

“If the board approves it on Monday night, then next week we will be hand-delivering letters to each employee. We aren’t saying they will be laid off that day. All staff will be employed until June 30.

“It is our hope to have the entire recall process complete by April 30,” Paramore said, the same time she is hoping to notify parents what schools their children will be attending and notify staff where they will be working.

“We are redesigning all of this all at once. We are having to look at all curricular offerings at schools. We know we have to re-educate a number of staff. We also have to adhere to deadlines in everybody’s contracts. As we are inviting staff to come Thursday and Friday, we are saying we want you to know what we are doing and we will have more meetings for questions and answers,” Paramore said.

But Collins is against the move.

“These people (interim administrators) are all retirees from Detroit. They have antique ideas. They said they laid off the whole Detroit district once. Did they make Detroit better? Detroit is in worse shape than Pontiac,” Collins said.

In an action Jan. 26, trustees approved a restructuring plan that was presented by a committee of community residents, stakeholders and administrators and modified slightly by the board.

The two high schools — the 1,000-student Pontiac Northern and 900-student Pontiac Central — will be merged in a yet-to-be named high school in the Northern building. Central will be closed. Northern has a capacity of more than 3,000 students.

The three seventh and eighth-grade middle schools — Jefferson, Lincoln and Madison — will be merged at Madison, which officials say has more than enough room for the young teens and is located near Northern.

Jefferson and the attached Whittier Elementary will become a 1,500-student elementary school and Lincoln will be closed. The sixth grade was moved back to elementary schools this school year to help increase student achievement and will continue there. Alcott, Herrington, Owen, Rogers, Whitman elementaries and Kennedy School, a center for special education, will remain open. Owen Elementary is in a wing of Kennedy.

The district’s preschool academy will remain at Frost with some additional full-day classes at Whitmer Human Resource Center. A decision about where the alternative high school program will be held has not been announced.

Closing besides Central and Lincoln will be Crofoot, Longfellow, LeBaron, Franklin and Emerson and Bethune.

Contact staff writer Diana Dillaber Murray at (248) 745-4638 or diana.dillaber@oakpress.com.