Nov 18, 2008 11:05 am US/Eastern
Superintendent Wants To Downsize School District
Proposal Will Cut $85 Million From Budget
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Hundreds of jobs may be on the line as well as the future of a charter school when the Miami Dade School Board convenes on Tuesday.
Early Tuesday morning Alberto Carvalho was sworn in as the district's new school Superintendant along with the board. Four of the board members were re-elected earlier this month; Renier Diaz de la Portilla, Wilbert ''Tee'' Holloway, Martin Karp and Ana Rivas Logan. The fifth newly elected board member is Larry Feldman, a former principal of Devonaire K-8 center, who beat incumbent School Board member Evelyn Greer. Feldman made headlines earlier in the year when the retired principal's offer to stay on the job for a $1 salary was rebuffed by the district.
At 1 p.m. the board will get down to business as they discuss the elimination of up to 440 jobs when they take up Carvalho's plan to cut $85 million from the budget.
The school district is approximately $125 million in the red. Carvalho's proposal calls for downsizing the district's main office in Miami by cutting certain administration office positions and implementing pay cuts for some employees. The district's top administrators would also receive up to a 10 percent pay cut. Throughout the district, 110 assistant principal positions would be eliminated and some schools would lose their media specialists. Last week Carvalho said the proposed cuts would not compromise education.
"If we do not deal with it right now, we will face a deficit budget at year's end," said Carvalho.
The proposal also calls for cutting spending on school field trips and after school programs; other cuts include food service and transportation services.
Some school employees, like Vicky Hall who drives a bus for the district, said now is not the time to be cutting jobs.
"People are losing their homes right now, it's going to be real bad. A lot of people are going to be out on the streets," said Hall.
The School Board will also discuss closing the charter school Excel Academy due to under enrollment.
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