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In Iredell-Statesville Schools, administrators plan to take a pay cut.
In Wake County, the jobs of about 1,500 educators hang in limbo.
Gaston County delayed contracts for 650 teachers before deciding to gamble that it can pay them.
A summer of anxiety is gripping educators across North Carolina, as legislators grapple with a state budget that's bound to be bleak. While Charlotte-Mecklenburg's 1,176 school layoffs have been among the most dramatic, urban and suburban systems across the state have seen a startling reversal.
As recently as last year, they were boom markets, luring teachers from other states to handle growing enrollment. Now the recession has crashed into North Carolina's most prosperous areas, and those jobs are disappearing.
“I've been in this business 33 years. This is the worst year we've ever had, by far,” says Hank Hurd, chief operating officer for Durham County Schools, where the Research Triangle Park has traditionally meant a big infusion of county cash for schools.
Comparing how districts are handling the budget crunch is difficult. Each seems to have a slightly different approach to whacking jobs, using combinations of attrition, layoffs, temporary contracts and other methods. All say they hope to rehire good people.
But with state spending up in the air – legislators missed the July 1 start of the budget year and gave themselves two more weeks – many local officials fear they'll end up handing out more pink slips.
“We hear every day about people who are being told they definitely lost a job or they can't be offered a contract at this time,” said Sheri Strickland, president of the N.C. Association of Educators.
She said the approach N.C. teachers had gotten used to – if you lose one job, “look at the next county over” – no longer works.
Too much, too soon?
Many have wondered why CMS started layoffs in March, and why hundreds of teachers have gotten the ax.
For starters, CMS suffered a bigger cut in county money – $34 million, or about 10 percent – than the state's other urban districts. Guilford, for instance, took no cut. Durham lost about 3 percent. Wake lost about 1 percent, in a year when it expects 2,400 new students to bring its enrollment to 140,000, surpassing CMS by almost 6,000 kids.
Mecklenburg County had a bigger budget shortfall this year because commissioners had approved a new approach to paying for construction projects, which pulled almost $23 million out of its operating money. Manager Harry Jones also said he had worked to shield schools from deep cuts in the budget year that just ended, but CMS had to share the pain with other county agencies this time.
Leaders of all districts talk about protecting the classroom. But so much of the budget is invested there that officials struggle to find other cuts to cover gaps in county and state money.
Officials in Durham, Gaston and Iredell-Statesville say they've used federal stimulus money to pay for teacher jobs. CMS Superintendent Peter Gorman has hesitated, saying most of it comes with strings attached. In addition, he has warned that it runs out in two years, which just postpones the “cliff” when people lose jobs.
Strickland, with the NAE, says she's baffled by that argument, which she's heard from CMS and a few other districts. “Why in the world wouldn't you keep the teachers, even if it's for the next two years?”
Some, including a few Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board members, have urged Gorman to look harder for administrative cuts. Gorman eliminated executive performance bonuses, including his own, but has resisted calls for a pay cut.
On Monday, Iredell-Statesville Superintendent Terry Hollidayasked his board to consider a 2 percent pay cut for principals and higher-level administrators; the board will vote next week.
“The board understands that this is a critical time for everybody, and it's only fair that everybody takes a hit,” said board member Kenneth Wilson.
Despite an 8 percent cut in county money, Iredell-Statesville officials say they believe they can avoid teacher layoffs.
Job limbo
Most districts, including CMS, froze some or all hiring when the economy started to crash.
But most have had to find ways to tell teachers, assistants and other employees they may not have jobs this year.
Gaston initially withheld contracts for all teachers who didn't have tenure. Last week Superintendent Reeves McGlohon called them back.
“It's just the uncertainty and the waiting,” said a Gaston science teacher who went without a contract for two or three weeks. He said he came to teaching after working in pharmaceuticals and textiles, and thought he'd found a secure job.
Even after he'd signed his contract, he didn't want to give his name for an article, saying he'd noticed the contract was dated Aug. 3: “I'm scared they can rip it up.”
Job fears are pervasive around the state. In March, Wake County told about 1,500 employees whose contracts were expiring that they might not be renewed. Officials hope to rehire 800 to 900, but aren't sure they can.
During a spurt of optimism in May, Wake hired some teachers on month-to-month contracts, which can be terminated if money falls short. Soon after the district stopped hiring at all.
Clock ticking
Hurd, the Durham official, notes that school starts in less than two months. The state's budget delay means valuable preparation time is lost, he said.
“I don't see how we could get a worse scenario,” he said.
Wake schools spokesman Michael Evans does: About 30,000 Wake students who attend year-round schools started their 2009-10 school year last week, under an interim state budget that further limits what can be spent.
Whatever the legislature decides, the start of school brings another challenge: State money to hire teachers is based on enrollment. With the recession slowing the influx of families with children, formerly booming districts now project little to no growth.
There's an extra twist: This year the cutoff for kindergarten moves from October to August, which means a one-time drop in the number of kindergarteners. In flusher years, districts could pay to keep a few extra teachers. This year, no one has money to spare. That could mean good kindergarten teachers get fired – with hopes they will be available in 2010-11, when enrollment returns to normal.
“Nobody,” says Evans, “is feeling safe right now.”
