157 central o∞ce jobs will be cut

The action, done prior to budget trims, a≠ects no teaching positions.

Denver Public Schools officials told the board at a meeting Tuesday they are cutting 157 positions from the central office in preparation for looming budget cuts.

Of those positions — none of which are teaching ones — 115 are employees who already were notified, and 42 positions currently are vacant. It’s a 6 percent budget cut for the central office.

At the same time, DPS is adding 49 positions for teacher leaders or deans at the school level, focusing on higher-needs schools.

“This is a big impact to a lot of people within the district,” DPS chief financial officer Mark Ferrandino told the board.

Factoring the investment of new school-level positions, DPS expects to save between $8 million and $10 million, Ferrandino said.

The cut positions are funded through the end of June, but officials told the board they wanted employees to be able to apply for the new school-level positions when they are posted this spring.

The proposed budget will be finalized after the legislature makes final appropriations. The school board is expected to vote on the budget in May.

Even if the legislature’s final budget for schools improves from current proposals, including Gov. John Hickenlooper’s proposed budget cuts, Ferrandino said long-term trends still call for the cuts.

“An increase next year would help, but it doesn’t change the trajectory,” he said. “We’ve been able to use fund balance in the past, and now we’re at a place where that fund balance is getting down to 10 percent and we have to slow down our use of that.”

DPS is also expecting continued funding cuts as a result of demographic changes. As the district enrolls fewer students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, support dollars for those groups decrease.

The proposed budget also includes cuts to consultant partnerships and translation services and investments in teacher leadership programs and professional development for early literacy.