The Bibb County school district is cutting 53 positions at the end of the current school year because grant funding has run out.
Though the positions will be cut, it doesn’t automatically mean impacted employees will be laid off, according to a school news release.
Those jobs account for about $4.23 million in annual salary and benefit costs, according to data from the district. The jobs are funded with grant money that won’t be available in the 2013-14 school year, according to the release.
Contracts for impacted employees, who found out about the cuts Thursday, expire June 30.
School officials said they plan to work with the 53 employees to help find them jobs in the district.
“We want our employees who are affected to know that we understand their feelings and are working diligently to support them through this process,” Kelley Castlin-Gacutan, deputy superintendent of operations, said in the release.
Of the jobs that will be cut, 22 of those were funded through three-year School Improvement Grants aimed at improving student performance at low-achieving high schools.
Hutchings Career Center, as well as Northeast, Rutland and Southwest high schools were awarded the grant in 2010, while Central High School started receiving the grant money in 2011.
The school system did not specify Thursday how many jobs would be cut at each school.
The reduction in staff also impacts 24 instructional coaches paid through federal funds. In all, the district has 86 instructional coaches, said Bibb schools spokesman Donald Porter.
Finally, seven staff members in the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, also known as GEAR UP, will be affected. GEAR UP funds follow Bibb’s current seventh- and eighth-graders during their high school careers through 2017-18 in a push to get them to college. Those employees provided teacher development through a program called Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID.
School district officials will meet with those employees Friday to discuss things such as why the positions were cut and what options they may have.
Also Friday, certified staff will receive paperwork asking them to indicate whether they plan to return to work in Bibb County in the coming school year. Those letters must be returned by March 1, Porter said.
Once the school system has the paperwork, the school system’s human resources department is expected to begin considering the impacted employees for anticipated job openings.
Before taking a job with the school district, those considering a grant-funded position are warned their jobs could be cut once the funding is gone, the news release stated.
To contact writer Andrea Castillo, call 744-4331.
