The New Haven Board of Education says it will direct the superintendent to reverse the layoff of hundreds of part-time employees, which was announced last week in an effort to cover a budget deficit.
Board President Darnell Goldson says they should have been notified before Superintendent Carol Birks' decision to send the layoff notices.
“The Board was not aware of those notices, nor who those people were, or what effect they have on the Board of Education and how they affect student outcome…We certainly would’ve wanted to have more input in that because some of these part-time employees actually work in the classrooms. They’re paraprofessionals and some other folks, and we’ve always said from the very beginning that we were going to stay away from the classrooms as much as possible…And we decided that we wanted to set the record straight with how this affects the community.”
Goldson says Birks has been directed to rescind layoff notices sent to 764 part-time employees.
He says the remaining 400 people who received notices were in the school district's online system, but they were not paid for work in the last school year.
According to Goldson, the Board will continue to provide guidance to the superintendent. Birks says she welcomes the guidance, as the district is in a "crisis situation financially."
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