40 state education staffers laid off, 21 vacant positions eliminated
State Superintendent Mark Johnson announced Friday that the Department of Public Instruction is eliminating 61 positions - 40 employees and 21 vacant positions. The layoffs are in response to $5.1 million in budget cuts lawmakers made to the agency.
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The cuts mainly affect employees in two divisions – Educator Support Services, which helps some of the state's lowest-performing schools, and Information Technology. The General Assembly reduced the agency's administrative funds by 6.2 percent this school year and 13.9 percent next school year.
"I support the decisions we made, but we did not make them lightly," Johnson said in a statement. "I thank all the affected employees for their hard work in support of our public schools. Each will have the option to receive transition assistance, and we are adamant about helping each affected employee who wants our help to find new employment."
The positions cut are:
- 2 Education Program Director I – will be abolished once incumbent retires/leaves
- Administrative Specialist – vacant
- Administrative Specialist – vacant
- Administrative Associate II – filled
- Information & Communication Specialist II – vacant
- Administrative Specialist I – filled
- Education Consultant III – 1 vacant; 13 filled
- Education Consultant II – 10 vacant; 15 filled
- User Support Technician I – 3 vacant
- User Support Technician II – 1 vacant; 1 filled
- IT Enterprise Architect – filled
- Applications Systems Analyst I – 1 vacant; 4 filled
- Applications Systems Analyst II – 1 filled
- Database Analyst I – filled
- Network Analyst – filled
- Administrative Specialist I – filled
Citing recommendations from a recent audit of his agency, Johnson explained how the two divisions will function moving forward. Educator Support Services will move to a more regional support structure to help low-performing schools. The agency will also centralize IT's core responsibilities and outsource other duties, either to vendors or the N.C. Department of Information Technology.
The superintendent previously joined the State Board of Education in asking lawmakers to delay the $5.1 million cut for the 2018-19 school year, saying his agency needed the money to be more efficient and effective.
As lawmakers cut the state education agency's budget, they voted to include about $700,000 in the state budget last summer for Johnson to hire up to 10 staffers without the approval of the state board. They also provided him with $300,000 for his legal expenses to fight the state board in court over control of the state's $10 billion public school system.
The North Carolina Supreme Court recently handed down a decision in the case, but both the board and superintendent have claimed victory.
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