Schenectady schools to layoff another 60
Three days into the new school year, board members signed off on slashing dozens of additional staff and administrators as the district struggles to make up for a projected $28.7 million loss in state aid tied to the coronavirus crisis.
The cuts were made over the objection of one school board member, Nohelani Etienne, and as the state’s budget director, Robert Mujica, asserted school districts were acting prematurely in making mass layoffs and that the state has only withheld a fraction of the funds educators fear they’ll lose.
But on Wednesday, acting Superintendent of Schools Aaron Bochniak and other school leaders warned that the district, which welcomed
students back online and in person Monday, would be in even more financial trouble if it waited on cuts in hopes of getting more state funds with no guarantee the money will materialize.
“If we waited until January, the amount of cuts that we’re making would have to be double because we would already have spent that money,” said Bochniak. “This was really to slow the bleed as much as possible.”
Before the 6-to-1 vote to lay off about 60 employees, board member Andy Chestnut decried that mostly Black and brown employees and city residents would be out of jobs in the district, which serves 9,450 students.
He also called on New York to be more equitable in how it distributes funds to schools and suggested the state eliminate funding formulas that cause money problems in financially struggling school districts. Put the money, he said, where it is most needed.
Bochniak agreed with Chestnut and others who asserted that what’s happening in the Schenectady school system amounts to systemic racism.
“This is absolutely an example and exemplifies structural and systemic racism, and the law and practices that we have to abide by could also be categorized as the same,” he said. “I think that we as an organization are committed to combating this, and I know if we put our heads together we can have ways to address this.”
Schenectady is looking at total layoffs of about 450 employees in nearly every area, including teachers, teaching assistants, assistant principals, janitors and members of the administrative office staff.
Bochniak explained that in some cases positions were in the interim being taken “offline” with seniority factoring into decisions about who stays and who goes.
He compared the situation to some school buildings that have been temporarily shuttered because of all the families who opted for all-virtual learning and the district’s decision to mandate no in-person instruction for nearly all students in grades 7-12.
Etienne, a new board member, cast the lone dissenting vote Wednesday. She tried unsuccessfully to convince her colleagues to wait to see if the state aid cut — expected by the district to be about $28.7 million loss — might be restored.
“I’m wondering if we’re doing it a little too quick,” she said, appearing to get emotional. She has children in the district.
Board President John Foley countered that he didn’t have much faith federal lawmakers would come through with stimulus money the state hopes will infuse its coffers and allow it to eventually distribute more aid to schools.
Delivering another round of federal stimulus money is stalled in debates between Democratic leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Republicans’ Senate majority.
Before Wednesday, Schenectady already laid off 107 teachers, 231 teaching assistants, 14 social workers, 30 operations and maintenance staffers, 16 positions each for clerical and administrators, as well as 50 lunch monitors, and delayed the start of pre-kindergarten classes until January.
To date, the belt-tightening has resulted in $21.8 million in staff layoffs and reductions, $4 million in transportation savings, $1.5 million in substitutes, overtime and extra duty, $400,000 in contractual obligations, and $250,000 in utilities and miscellaneous expenses.
Juliet Benaquisto, president of the Schenectady Federation of Teachers, called into the virtual meeting to clarify some issues about her union members.
“We are having to cut people that are very close to students,” she said. “It’s going to be challenging to give students the attention they deserve.”
Bochniak reiterated Wednesday that the district may be forced into more layoffs if state aid payments, now 20 percent off from the last school year, go down.
“The signal to us would be if these payments come in at an even greater withholding,” he told the board, adding later in response to a question from a board member that the district would be tapping into its reserves for years to come because of depleted revenues.
■ argued other people in the box would have seen the alleged assault if it happened.
Hendrickson said that there are no areas of privacy in the box. And for it to happen, it would have had to have happened inside of the bathroom.
At the time of the alleged incident, Trump and his second wife, Marla Maples, were in the midst of a divorce. Hendrickson, who did not want to say if he supports Trump’s re-election, said that Trump and Maples visited Whitney at her Saratoga Springs home during happier times.
“I don’t want to defend anyone’s actions,” Hendrickson said. “I’m just telling you what I saw.”
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