MOUNT MORRIS TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WJRT) - 12 staff members at Beecher Community Schools are being laid off.
Superintendent Dr. Richard Klee says the end of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief granted during the pandemic, as well as declining enrollment led to the layoffs.
The 12 employees include 7 substitute teachers employed by the district, 3 non-certified, non-core employees, and 2 paraprofessionals.
Dr. Klee declined an on-camera interview with ABC12. In an email, he says the reason for the cuts dates back to the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, nearly a third of all teaching staff needed to be filled by substitutes, but the district was having trouble doing so through a third-party contractor.
As a stopgap measure, we hired district substitute teachers who would come to school each day to meet those needs," he writes.
Now, four years after the start of the pandemic, the district is in a better place when it comes to hiring teachers.
"We approved a teachers contract that has allowed us to fill most of those open teaching positions and the need for district substitutes is much less," said Dr. Klee.
Without the need, and with the district facing a budget deficit, he recommended the school board approve the layoff of 12 employees. The majority of those layoffs were district substitute teachers.
"These layoffs will allow us to maintain a budget that is not in deficit and a fund balance that allows us to not be identified by the state of Michigan as needing assistance," he said.
Klee says that while the substitute teachers are no longer employed by the district they can return to third-party service to continue working. As for the non-certified employees and paraprofessionals, they can return from layoff if enrollment increases.
