Posted 3:02 am Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Early-Notice Resignation Program OK'd At Jacksonville ISD
By KELLY GOOCH
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
JACKSONVILLE -- Giving an early notice of resignation will pay off for Jacksonville ISD personnel in the coming weeks.
A short-term early notice resignation program, which includes stipends, was approved by trustees Tuesday night.
Superintendent Dr. Joe Wardell said the program is expected to start today and run for two to three weeks.
Under the program, the district will offer $500 to the first 50 full-time professionals and the first 50 full-time paraprofessionals or auxiliary support personnel who submit an early notice resignation letter between today and Feb. 25. Personnel must work through the end of the school year to receive the payment.
"There are people who have already decided they will retire or go into something else, and we're trying to get them to make that commitment now instead of waiting until May or June so we can look at personnel and figure out what to do before April, when we have to renew contracts," Wardell said. "So we need to have as many decisions like that already out of the way so we can make our decision."
School Board President James Houser said if the board knows early, it also could help prevent layoffs.
The early resignation program is one way the district is preparing for possible budget cuts.
Based on projections from Texﾭas school fiﾭnance experts Moak, Casey & Asﾭsociates, JISD could lose $2.7 million to more than $4 million in state funding each year, Wardell has said. That's 8 percent to 15 percent of its $35 million budget.
During Tuesday's meeting, Wardell told trustees that the district will have to go to a half-day pre-kindergarten program.
State technology funds also won't be there next year, he said, so the district will have to take the money out of its general fund. The district gets $30 per student, which is used to keep servers running and replace hardware.
The state also pays for students to take Advanced Placement tests, but one of the grants is gone for next year, Wardell said. Therefore, the district will have to decide if it will now spend the money itself.
Houser said JISD is looking at every way it can cut and condense expenses without eliminating any personnel, which makes up 85 percent of the district's budget.
Maintaining "personnel is the number one goal, but for now we can make contingency plans," he said. "We certainly have a lot of contingencies and are moving stuff around."
Wardell agreed, saying the district is successful, partly because of its individualized instruction.
JISD had nine meetings with directors or principals, and six more are scheduled during the next week and a half.
Wardell has said the district asked that administrators and directors look closely at open positions to decide whether they need to fill it for the remainder of the year or whether they can fill it with a form of a substitute or temporary person.
"We need to be looking at this stuff, and we have to make some decisions, but we want to make sure we're not taking the (focus) off what we do well, and that's the academic achﾭieveﾭment of kids," Wardell said last week.
