More than 300 CMS teachers got layoff notices Friday, with more coming next week.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Peter Gorman said 304 teachers were given letters, including 178 who did not meet performance standards and 58 who did not have full licensure. Notices will go out next week to part-time teachers, retirees who have been rehired and teachers under one-year contracts, Gorman said in a statement released to the media.
The layoffs take effect at the end of the school year.
“These are cuts that we hoped to avoid,” Gorman said in the statement. “Unfortunately, the information that we’re getting from the state and the county suggests that these cuts will be necessary and perhaps even more. The economic downturn is affecting our two main funding sources.”
Gorman had warned for weeks that teacher layoffs were imminent because of anticipated funding cuts.
The number of notification letters and the number of CMS workers actually fired may not precisely match the number of positions listed for cuts in the budget, said Maurice Ambler, chief human resources officer for the district. Resignations, retirements, trading of positions at the school level – all of these things affect the number of affected employees,” he said.
“From now until the opening of schools in August,” he said, “we are in a period of great flux.”
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