PORTLAND – Superintendent Jim Morse has recommended eliminating 8.5 teaching positions at Portland and Deering high schools because of declining enrollment.
Morse provided more detailed information on his proposed $92.7 million budget for the next school year in advance of a public hearing at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Room 250 at Casco Bay High School.
The budget, effective July 1, would eliminate 84 positions across the district, according to documents presented to the school board this week. To determine where reductions would be made, Morse and his administrative team reviewed enrollment and staffing ratios, program offerings and multiple revenue sources.
At Portland High, where enrollment is expected to drop from 967 this year to 941 next year, the budget would eliminate a half-time social worker, a half-time Spanish teacher, an education technician and a secretary.
At Deering High, where enrollment is expected to drop from 1,048 to 924, the budget would eliminate two English teachers, a math teacher, a science teacher and a social studies teacher.
A half-time guidance counselor at the high school level also would be eliminated.
Other enrollment-driven reductions include a first-grade teacher at Lyseth Elementary School; a grade 1-2 teacher at Longfellow Elementary School; a guidance counselor, a teacher and a librarian at Lincoln Middle School; 2.5 special education teachers; 3.5 teachers at Portland Arts and Technology High School; and four education technicians in other areas of the district.
The number of layoffs needed to reach Morse’s staffing goals will be offset by pending retirements. The district has fewer than 1,200 employees.
In reviewing program needs, Morse recommends eliminating 18 positions whose duties would be assigned to other staff members, including five data literacy coaches, a private school coordinator, an assistant special education director, an assistant high school principal, a family living teacher and 3.5 custodians.
Positions to be cut because federal funding has been eliminated include 37 ed techs and a half-time multilingual administrator.
Morse also plans to reduce the $2.3 million adult education budget by $488,000. He intends to save about $314,000 by replacing 8.5 teachers, who are paid a total of $595,000 in annual salaries and benefits under the teachers’ union contract.
Instead, he would hire non-union instructors, who would be paid $27 an hour and no benefits, for a total annual expense of $281,000.
A little over $94,000 would be saved by eliminating one of two adult education directors. An additional $80,000 in adult ed savings would come from nonpersonnel budget cuts.
Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:
kbouchard@pressherald.com
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