The Syracuse City School District is having to cut 137 staff jobs for next school year. The President of the Board of Education said these cuts would not come by way of layoffs. The school district loses 150 to 160 staff members each year because of everything from retirement to moving to a different district, Ned Deuel said. The district will just not fill the vacated positions rather than layoff current employees.
Superintendent Daniel Lowengard told the Post-Standard the district would rather have less teachers paid more so they can be better trained and qualified. This approach would put more students in each classroom, which is contrary to the Student Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) study done in Tennessee. The report shows a direct correlation between the success of the students and the size of the classroom. Deuel said he did not know what Lowengard meant but thought his words were not interpreted correctly.
"Probably what he meant was that we're not going to cut staff development to keep a few more (teachers) and have poorly trained teachers. We'd rather have a few less and have them trained well," Deuel said.
The city of Syracuse does not have any more money to be given to the school district, so the district is going to lobby Congressman Jim Walsh for more federal money in order to help with the financial hardship.
*Picture of Ned Deuel from Syracuse City School District's website
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