Facing a $25 million budget deficit, the Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Trustees approved plans late Monday night to lay off nearly 100 teachers.
Layoffs are only part of the $20.4 million dollar plan proposed by Interim Superintendent Jazz Parks and approved by trustees in a 6-1 vote at the end of a more than four-hour meeting Monday. (Dig into the plan details here.)
Board President Torchio Feaster said the cuts are painful, but necessary.
"We just can't continue to have ourselves in this kind of a position, This is dangerous for our district ... and so we have to get in a place where we have a healthy fund balance, and this vote will allow for that."
Feaster said the auditing and consulting firm Plante Moran has been investigating the cause of the massive deficit. He said he expects to see findings in "days" and the report should be available to the public at the board's next meeting in June.
Monday's meeting began with nearly three hours of public comment. Nearly all speakers made passionate pleas for trustees to reconsider the plan and proposed cuts to beloved programs. Many urged administrators to take salary cuts.
A crowd marching into the chamber before the meeting started chanted, "Arts over admin," and "Cut from the top."
"We want the central office to take a greater share of this burden," said Rebecca Hogan. "We're asking you to minimize impact to students."
In addition to layoffs for over 90 teachers, approved cuts include closing all middle school pools, "reduced co-teacher support" for band and music classes, and eliminating the elementary world languages program.
District officials have attributed the majority of the budget shortfall to an accounting error, coupled with continued hiring even as enrollment dropped.
The district submitted a "corrective action plan" to state regulators in April, laying out a pathway to increasing the the district's general fund balance to 5% of annual revenues before the next budget cycle. That balance is the amount remaining at the end of a fiscal year — a safety net for the district. The cuts approved by trustees Monday won't get the district to that threshold, according to Feaster.
Other efforts to raise the district's fund balance may include selling a building or other real estate. District officials say it must submit a finalized budget that gets the general fund balance close to 5% of revenues by the end of June to comply with state law.
The district and the local teachers union, the Ann Arbor Education Association, have an agreement to offer district teachers a voluntary severance plan, a lump-sum payment into a retirement account, if they resign or retire from their AAPS position.
"All those things can contribute to us getting closer to that 5%," Feaster said. "We're not there yet, but we're heading in that direction."
Union President Fred Klein said the voluntary severance idea came from the union with hopes of saving jobs.
Klein said he's been complaining about the district's continued hiring while student enrollment declined since before the pandemic.
"They didn't listen," Klein said. "They continued hiring. And now, they need to right-size and it's going to be super painful — and we're really angry about that."
Parks, the district superintendent, told reporters Monday during the meeting that "24 or 25" teachers had accepted the voluntary severance offer so far.
