Rochester School Superintendent Terry Dade’s formula for dealing with a $60 million revenue gap includes cutting more than 200 positions, including more than 190 teachers from the district’s rolls.
Dade presented his 2020-2021 budget to the Rochester School Board Thursday night. In his presentation, he recommends cutting 236 positions on top of nearly 100 layoffs at the end of last year. He’s also proposing $7 million in cuts to special education programs, eliminating the Young Mothers program and cutting the Rochester International Academy down to grades 6-12. There are other cuts as well.
Dade says the district needs to be right-sized. While he says this isn’t fun for him, the district has steadily increased staff over the past six years while student enrollment has been declining.
Rochester Teachers Association head Adam Urbanski said the cuts would be devastating to student learning and to teachers.
But there may be more cuts needed. The school district has asked for $30 million in additional aid from the state to help close the gap. Governor Cuomo warned on Thursday that school districts and local governments should figure on getting by with less as the state’s revenues have taken a hit of up to $15 billion from the coronavirus shutdown.