Linn-Mar confirms 50 staff positions being cut next year

MARION, Iowa (KCRG) – On Thursday, the Linn-Mar School District confirmed that fifty full-time employees positions inside the district might be reduce for the 2024/2025 school 12 months.

At Monday’s board meeting, the district launched that regardless that they made roughly $3 million in cuts this faculty 12 months, one different $2.5 million should be made for the following one as successfully.

“As a district, we’re focused on managing these financial challenges whereas striving to attenuate the impression on our operations and the usual of the educational experience our school college students acquire,” acknowledged Amy Kortemeyer, Superintendent. “We do not make these decisions evenly, as every employees member serving our faculties provides distinctive value to our school college students and households. Nonetheless, we should always take movement to steadiness our funds and meet our obligation to maintain up a healthful financial place.”

19 full-time instructing positions and 31 full-time labeled employees positions might be reduce as part of the funds cuts.

The district has cited a mix of expiring COVID-19 assist funding, low funding from the state legislature, and declining enrollment as components inside the financial shortfall.

“We’re fortunate to serve a neighborhood that helps its native faculties and the parents behind them,” acknowledged Kortemeyer. “We keep devoted to balancing our funds and offering the perfect educational experience for our school college students. We want our employees and neighborhood to know that we’re going to persevere by way of these challenges collectively.”

You can study Superintendent Amy Kortemeyer letter to district households and employees beneath:

Costly Households,

I am writing to allow you to perceive that, this earlier Monday in the middle of the Board of Education Meeting, the Linn-Mar Group School District launched roughly $2.5 million in reductions for the following, 2024-25, fiscal 12 months.

To steadiness the funds, the district has made reductions in numerous areas, along with these every related and unrelated to staffing.

These are very robust decisions for us to make. Many school districts all through the state are coping with the equivalent dilemma as we’re, largely because of years of underfunding of state supplemental assist (SSA), the shortage of ESSER (COVID assist) funding, and a drop in licensed enrollment.

To date, we have got taken numerous steps to take care of the funds shortfall, along with gathering cost-saving ideas from employees, offering early separation incentives to lecturers, extending these related incentives to administrators, and conducting a survey to gauge employees members’ intentions for the following school 12 months.

The district made about $3 million in cuts this faculty 12 months. Nonetheless, subsequent 12 months’s reductions cannot be achieved by way of objects unrelated to staffing, early separations, retirements, or resignations alone. Offered that 80% of the district’s frequent fund funds comprises salaries and benefits, we’d wish to reduce our instructing employees by 19 full-time equal (FTE) positions and labeled employees by 31 full-time equal (FTE) positions for the 2024-25 school 12 months.

Employees members affected by the reductions have been notified. We anticipate that some class sizes will return to pre-pandemic ranges due to these actions (i.e. 21-25 on the elementary diploma). We look to make these funds reductions whereas minimizing, as so much as attainable, the impression on our school college students and the usual coaching they acquire.

Public faculties are the center of our neighborhood, and our collective voices might be utilized to advocate for passable funding for public faculties. Please consider contacting your state legislators about this important issue.

Thanks in your assist of the Linn-Mar Group School District and the students we serve.

Sincerely,

Amy Kortemeyer, Superintendent

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