Birks Directed To Rescind Layoff Notices

The mayor and Board of Education president called for a course reversal on handling expected layoffs by the schools superintendent — who was noticeably absent as they publicly criticized her as a newbie stumbling through an important decision-making process.

The call was issued at a Monday morning press conference held at City Hall.

Mayor Toni Harp and ed board President Darnell Goldson called at the press conference for Schools Superintendent Carol Birks to rescind the layoff notices she sent out June 22 to over 1,100 part-time New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) employees.

Standing alongside Board of Ed Vice President Jamell Cotto, Board of Ed Secretary Dr. Tamiko Jackson-McArthur, and Board of Ed member Frank Redente, Goldson said that, according to MUNIS, the school system’s employee database, only 764 part-time employees worked for, and were paid by, NHPS during the school year that just ended in June, not 1,100.

Goldson said 386 of the 1,153 people who received layoff notices two weeks ago did not work for NHPS last year. Instead, those people were previously employed by NHPS, and their names simply had not been removed from the list of actively employed part-time personnel in MUNIS. He said another three of those part-time personnel do not have a last paid date listed in MUNIS.

Harp said Birks’ action went against what they thought was an agreement to prioritize protecting employees who work directly with kids in the classroom as the Board of Ed proceeds making needed layoffs in the face of a $20 million projected budget deficit for the fiscal year beginning Monday.

“Make no mistake,” Harp said during the press conference; ​“1,153 public school employees are not going to lose their jobs.”

Goldson said that means that the school system currently employs only 764, not 1,153, part-time personnel. These people work in positions ranging from athletic coaches and clerical workers to bus aides to part-time teachers. He said those 764 part-time staffers did indeed receive layoff notices a few weeks ago, and that the full board did not hear about these layoffs until several days after the notices were sent out. He said the board is now ordering the superintendent to rescind and reexamine those 764 layoffs. The reason, he said, is the central role that many of those employees play in student education.

“We have also learned than an overwhelming majority of the 764 employees have direct and consequential contact with our students,” he said. ​“Though the question remains whether or not removing these employees from our schools may save the district some money, it is not clear to us that it will improve educational outcomes for our students and may actually have a negative effect.”

Goldson referred to the superintendent’s actions on this layoff issue as a ​“stumble.”

“The superintendent is not just new to New Haven and this school system,” he said. ​“She is also a new superintendent.”

Birks — whom Harp and Goldson led the charge to hire this year — was not present at Monday morning’s meeting. Goldson and Harp said she was at a previously scheduled meeting related to the part-time employee layoffs.

Board of Ed member Ed Joyner was also not at the meeting. He was the only Board of Ed member not to sign onto the board’s Monday morning call.

Neither Birks nor Joyner responded to several calls requesting comment on this article.

According to a handout provided by the mayor’s office, 126 of the 764 part-time employees who received layoff notices are part-time teachers who work over 150 hours per year. Another 50 are part-time teachers who work under 150 hours per year. The remaining nearly 600 active part-time employees include clerical workers, bus aides, paraprofessionals, athletic officials, and non-certified instructors.

Goldson said the board will order the superintendent to rescind her previous layoff notices for the school system’s 764 active part-time employees, and then send follow up notices to those personnel informing them that her office will perform a ​“more thorough analysis” of each individual position and determine on a ​“case by case basis whether or not those roles will fit the board’s desire to increase educational outcomes for our students.”

Birks started as schools superintendent in March 2018. Goldson and Harp spoke out forcefully for her hiring amid controversy over the process.

“We want the superintendent to explain to us how removing those part-time employees provides educational outcomes for our students,” Goldson continued. ​“That’s the number one goal.”

He said he understands that the layoffs were likely more related to the superintendent’s efforts to close the prospective $20 million budget deficit for the fiscal year that began July 1. But, he said, the superintendent still has to answer for the impact that these layoffs would have on the school system’s core education services.

He also said the board will order the superintendent to focus on completing her reorganization of the NHPS central office and to focus on preparing the district for the beginning of the new school year in September.

Goldson said he did not know how much the 764 active part-time staffers currently cost the BOE to employ. Birks’s new analysis of these positions should include projected savings for positions that may be eliminated, he said.

Harp also dealt with the issue following the press conference on her latest ​“Mayor Monday” program on WNHH FM. ​“We thought we had an agreement with the superintendent” on preserving positions that involve direct work with students, as many of these part-time and special-funded positions do, Harp said. ​“We had no idea” those notices were going out late last month to so many people.

“In our discussions with us, it was never really clear to us a number. … It caused a lot of turmoil in the community. It never had been a process that had been followed before. It wasn’t ever altogether clear what that number would be of people going back.” It turns out that some 400 people who received notices hadn’t work during the past school year at all. ​“There was no real sense they were needed,” Harp said.

Harp cautioned that some layoffs are indeed coming in the school system because of the budget deficit. ​“This is a $20 million problem.”

Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch the full episode of ​“Mayor Monday.”

Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch Monday’s full press conference.

This episode of ​“Mayor Monday” was made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem Moses P.C.