Training institute releases layoff list

Facility will terminate 107 positions in switch to nonresidential model

HOT SPRINGS — Arkansas Career Training Institute has released a list of 107 positions that will be terminated when it changes from a residential program to a nonresidential model later this year.

“We just finalized the actual positions that are not going to stay. We know exactly now which positions we’re not retaining. We originally thought it was going to impact around 120 people. It’s a little less than that now, at 107,” Arkansas Rehabilitation Services Commissioner Alan McClain said Friday.

The Legislative Council’s personnel subcommittee learned Tuesday that the projected cost of those employees’ severance payments is about $124,000. The information is in a written report from Kay Barnhill, the state’s personnel administrator.

The training institute is a 24-hour residential facility where 260 young adults with disabilities receive vocational training in preparation for employment opportunities. The program will end on or before Sept. 30, and the building is expected to be completely vacated by Dec. 30.

“Our model is changing to serve all the same students but in their own communities. Roughly a third of our budget is used to support this facility currently. A little over $11 million is what our budget is for this campus. With the new model, it’ll be roughly $3-3.5 million that we’ll continue to use here. So we’ll deploy the difference across the state to support our other programs,” McClain said on May 28.

McClain said Friday that he and institute administrators made the selections based on post-program completion job placement rates, and the personnel that would be needed to continue a nonresidential program.

A majority of the terminated positions were those connected to residential services in the facility, including 15 culinary staff, nine security staff, a dentist and a physician.

Personnel being laid off had salaries ranging from $22,164.90 to $133,601.31, according to a spreadsheet released by Rehabilitation Services. Approximately $3.5 million in payroll will be cut due to layoffs, according to the documents.

The documents did not identify the personnel by name, only by position.

One employee, a public safety officer, has been with the center since October 1978, the document said.

The most recent hire affected by the reductions, a “skilled tradesman,” has only been at the location since May 5 of this year.

“There are some people on this list who are retiring. So not everyone’s going to be looking for jobs,” McClain said.

McClain estimated Monday that 60-70 workers at the institute had been assisted in some way by the Department of Workforce Services’ mobile unit by way of resume writing assistance and connections to job opportunities in the area.

“Hopefully they’ll keep taking advantage of those resources. There’s lots of good opportunities around Hot Springs and the surrounding counties,” McClain said.

The mobile workforce arrived June 10, and a job fair was held June 13. Another job fair is set to be held in “a few weeks,” he said.

At Tuesday’s legislative committee meeting, Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, said, “The big thing is the population that we are serving that are being taken care of aren’t falling through the cracks and we are not going to have a bad PR experience about October when all this thing shuts down.”

“That’s our top priority right now, making sure our clients are served,” McClain told Hammer on Tuesday.

“We have data for the last four or five years that suggests that we can use our vocational rehab money better throughout the state rather than isolating one facility, in this case Hot Springs, where … a third of our budget actually goes,” McClain said.

Barnhill said this is probably the largest layoff of employees within state government in many years.

“These people are of different classifications that are common to other state agencies, so for an agency to be able to hire off this list and not have to go through the advertising process, the interviewing process, it is an advantage for an agency to fill positions, so we are hoping this list will have some quick turnaround,” she said.