Lost jobs weigh on merging district
School cuts affect hundreds
The largest sign that everything will soon be different here in public education happened Tuesday when workers moved the giant Shelby County Schools sign from the district offices on Hollywood north to what will soon be the former Memphis City Schools central office.
Inside the complex, 300 people — 15 percent of the 1,895 total people receiving pink slips in the merger — have either gotten word that they are not needed in the unified district or are sitting at their desks waiting to find out.
Down the street at the Teaching and Learning Academy, 2485 Union, terminated workers packed up in the presence of security staff Tuesday. For years, they ran staff development programs in MCS.
On top of the cuts in the central of-
fice, 215 nontenured teachers have lost their jobs. Another 130 plant managers, 750 custodial staff and 500 classroom aides and tutors will be getting pink slips this week, the final convulsive trauma of a school merger that started in December 2010 and ends in economic uncertainty for thousands in nearly every tax bracket.
“They are friends, they are family members, community members, and they are neighbors,” interim Supt. Dorsey Hopson told the Memphis Rotary Club on Tuesday. “I encourage you to help these people transition. It is devastating.”
But with the “very limited resources” the school board had, Hopson said the goal was to “make sure we saved as much money as we could for the classroom.”
Hundreds of teachers, not counted among the merger fatalities, are still hoping they will be hired for openings in schools. The same is true of the city schools custodial workers. The school board chose to outsource the jobs — to match the model used by SCS — and save the district $12 million in the first year of the merger.
GCA Services was awarded the districtwide cleaning contract. It has hired some workers and is waiting to complete background checks before announcing other hires.
But even for those who have been hired, the worries are heavy. “We start August 1 at $9 an hour, but I had been making $14.50,” said Patricia Brooks, a former MCS custodian. “Of course, we don’t like it. We have house notes, MLGW bills, cellphone bills. We have to buy groceries, do household repairs. I have to pay for my medicine. You also want to go to the beauty shop; you don’t want to work that hard for nothing.”
Velma Eaton, who earned $12.83 as a MCS custodial worker, has been placed in Colonial Middle, her former school, making $9 an hour. But instead of working on a crew of three, she is now the only custodian.
She normally goes to Chicago in the summer to visit her sick mother. “No one has said anything to me about vacation. I am very upset because I really need to take it. My mother cannot come here on her walker,” Eaton said.
“My house is almost ready to fall in. I was trying to get if fixed, piece by piece. I will not be able to get anything done to my house because of the pay drop. I’ve got to save a little here and a little there to pay my house note.”
Under MCS, the custodial workers were part of the state pension plan. Under GCA, they will work 32 hours a week and are not eligible for a pension, said Chad Johnson, AFSCME union representative.
“The medical insurance comes with a $3,000 to $5,000 deductible with $500 or so in monthly premiums, all a significant reduction in pay and benefits,” he said.
“Again, we see that the negative burdens of this ‘merger’ are falling on the people whose only crime is that they came to work every day and dedicated their lives to keeping our children in a clean and safe environment.”
The combined district budget for the fiscal period that begins July 1 is $75 million less than the combined budgets for both districts this year.
Last week, Hopson said 225 to 250 central office staff would be cut. On Tuesday, the number jumped to 300. Friday will be their last day of work unless they meet the qualifications for teacher and principal openings still available in some schools.