Several neighbors have written to the Board asking why LCPS is still engaged in recruiting activities when the budget is frozen (at best) for next year. It's a fair question, one that several Board members asked earlier in the process.
The short answer is that while the recruiting budget has been reduced, the School Board's proposed budget does not call for staff cuts, it actually increases the number of school-based employees to accommodate increasing enrollment. LCPS must be prepared to send out offer letters to new teachers starting May 1st in order to get the most talented.
While there are no new central office staff positions in the budget, there will be 2,500 more children to educate and a new school opening in the fall. This will require more teachers, bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers, school nurses, aides, secretaries... In addition many LCPS employees will retire, move, resign, transfer or change positions and their positions will need to be filled. The proposed budget manages to absorb all of this new hiring without increasing class sizes by instead making cuts in many other areas.
If the Supervisors cut the budget deeply then elimination of positions is considered, but even then the positions are not interchangeable. An Assistant Athletic Director whose position may be eliminated may not be qualified for the speech therapist opening, so some recruiting is necessary to find a highly qualified speech therapist. I also hope that in the event of a RIF, the LCPS Personnel department would expend some energy helping the RIF'd find other employment.
Of course our hope is that with your encouragement the Supervisors will vote to fully fund the proposed budget (as strongly endorsed by the Economic Development Commission) and that the recruiting efforts will have been prudent preparation.
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