A message from the Superintendent

May 15, 2012

Good morning,

Due to ongoing budget limitations, the School Board on May 2 authorized a very limited Reduction in Force this year. Given our growing enrollment and our priority to protect funding that directly affects our classrooms, we have worked hard to ensure we maintain and retain the backbone of our District – our employees.

Unfortunately, it is necessary for us to reduce our staffing in a few areas by up to 45 positions, including 17 Classified and 28 Certificated staff, primarily in the areas of counseling, Physical Education, Music, Career Technical Education and English Language Learners. Affected staff members in these positions were notified during the past several days about this RIF. In total, we also eliminated 11 Central Office positions.

Although this is a limited Reduction in Force compared to previous years, it is not easy and has a tremendous impact on those employees who will lose their position. I want to thank those staff members for their service to Seattle Public Schools and our students. Our Employee Assistance Program, together with the Seattle Education Association and Human Resources, are offering a resource program for Classified and Certificated staff on May 23. This program will include information about unemployment, benefits, job search resources, as well as the Right to Return process.

I want to thank our Budget team and our Human Resources Department for their work this spring. It is our goal to present the Board a balanced budget by June 20th, and our Budget team is working hard on finding ways to protect classroom funding in these challenging budget times.

Sincerely,



Susan

Susan Enfield, Ed.D.
Interim Superintendent
Seattle Public Schools