Anxiety Over Teacher Cuts an Issue in Northville Negotiations

will enter next fall with fewer teachers but how many fewer will likely be determined by negotiations this summer.

About 52 teaching positions are expected to be eliminated heading into the 2011-12 school year. Because that figure combines full- and part-time positions, the total number of laid off teachers could be higher. So far 65 teachers have received pink slip notices. Teachers, as Northville Patch previously reported, could be called back as soon as contract negotiations have concluded and a final budget has been approved.

As of this week, both sides have placed proposals on the table but they remain far apart on a new contract, according to an update issued Thursday by the district.   The district has been seeking concessions from its union groups to help offset a $12 million deficit it expects to accumulate over the next two years. The state is cutting spending on K-12 education to offset its own budget deficit.

The Northville Education Association, the district's teachers union, on Monday issued its formal counter-proposal which it said would generate just under $3.7 million in savings which could be used to call back laid off teachers.

School board president Joan Wadsworth previously indicated that an emergency manager might be called in if a contract settlement couldn't be reached. In an interview Friday, Wadsworth said that option is still on the table but that she hopes the district and the teacher's union could reach an agreement for the students' benefit without state intervention.

School board members are aware of the union's proposal but Wadsworth declined to comment on its specifics.

 “What the district will look like next year is likely to be determined by what happens this summer,” she said.

Layoffs mean that students will face increased class sizes next fall. There could be as many as 29 students in first through third grade classes, as many as 35 students in third through fifth grade classes and as many as 37 in middle and high
school classes, according to district estimates. 

"There is a lot of anxiety over what the district is going to look like in the fall," incoming Superintendent Mary Kay Gallagher said.

NEA President Ann Cook wasn't available for comment on the status of negotiations but had earlier called the layoffs "a crippling blow."

Teacher's union members and administrators alike have protested Lansing's cuts as well as the governor's reallocating $600 million from K-12 education to Michigan's colleges and universities.  

 “We want to let the bargaining process move forward a little more before we issue a statement,” she said. School board members will ultimately vote on the new contract, though they do not take a direct part in negotiations.

"There will also be teachers retiring and teachers on leave who won't be coming back because a spot might not be open," Gallagher said. In fact, at five staff returning from leave were laid off because they did not have enough seniority to stay during layoffs.

Teachers aren’t the district's only employees facing layoffs. Administrative staff members will also be let go, Wadsworth acknowledged, as the district seeks to balance next year’s budget. One building administrator has already been let go, according to the update available on the district's website, www.northville.k12.mi.us/.

Some 19 special education staff members were earlier given pink slips as a result of education cuts at the county level.

In a bit of good news, the district said it expects to receive the new, one-time $100 per student "best practice" allocation, created by Gov. Rick Snyder and the state Legislature, for meeting the required four of five best practices. It also expects to get another one-time allocation of $127 per student to offset retirement costs. 

But officials said the district will still lose about $5 million next year due to overall state cuts in education funding.

"We did get some help from Lansing but it wasn't all we'd hoped for," Wadsworth said.

In its update, the district said its proposal and that of the union were "significantly apart on the issues" but officials "remain hopeful that working collaboratively" they would be able to reach a fair and equitable settlement.