Jordan District won't lay off any teachers

Despite rumors that lured a gaggle of worried teachers to the west-side remaining Jordan school board meeting Tuesday night, Jordan School District will not be laying off teachers.

However, the district will attempt to eliminate 122 positions through attrition, including retirements and moves to neighboring school districts, such as the freshly formed Canyons School District.

District officials will know in the next couple weeks the number of vacating personnel from the west-side schools that will comprise the Jordan District beginning July 1. After that count is set, positions could be eliminated from the district office staff to make up the difference, said Jordan District human resources director June Lemaster.

Any personnel being laid off will be notified by the end of May, Lemaster said.

"Teachers are protected," she said. "It will be district staff."

"We feel classroom teachers have the greatest impact with students and that's where the learning occurs so we would rather look at cuts in other areas rather than sacrifice the education of students," Lemaster said.

Eliminating 122 positions would slice $5 million from the district's proposed 2009-10 budget, which must be approved by June 30, said Burke Jolley, Jordan district deputy superintendent for business services.

The west-side Jordan board will be discussing further cuts during the next few weeks. Preliminary results from a Dan Jones & Associates poll presented Tuesday night may help steer the board on these decisions.

Educators who showed up to Tuesday night's board meeting, saying they were concerned with the district's looming budget cuts, went home with few answers.

"We just want to know how it affects us and the children and where the cuts are going to be made," said Cheryl Droz, a literacy coach at Foothills Elementary School in Riverton.

It's hard to make plans when you don't know where you're going to be next year," Droz said.

Sandra Darrington, who teaches kindergarten at Rosamond Elementary School in Riverton, said, "I just want to know what they're thinking."

Districts are reacting to state budget cuts.

State funding for public education has been reduced by 16 percent, representing a loss of $412 million, according to state education budget officials.

A total of $198 million has come to public education through the federal stimulus funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.