20 Retire, Resign From Schools

The Board of Education bid adieu to two top administrators at its meeting Monday night, and it will do the same when three principals and a supervisor of social work retire this coming summer.

That was just a handful of the people who have decided to retire or resign from the school district since the board last met in December. The district also announced two teacher retirements and eight resignations at the meeting, held at Beecher School.

All together, the Board of Education approved a personnel report that included 20 retirements and resignations.

The departures come at crucial time for the school district as it attempts to fill an estimated $4.6 million hole in its current fiscal budget. Interim Superintendent Reginald Mayo said that he has been able to get the deficit down to about $4.1 million by reducing the number of teacher vacancies by 20. Some of those reductions were achieved by moving positions from the general fund to special funds. He said he will scrutinize 20 more teacher vacancies in the coming weeks.

Several of the school-level retirements won’t happen until June 30, so there won’t be any immediate savings to the school system’s budget. But some departures— like those of Director of Communications Mercy Quaye and Adriana Joseph, deputy chief of youth, family & community engagement — will happen this month, or have already happened.

Quaye, who joined the district in May 2016, is returning to the not-for-profit education world after Jan 26 to take a position with Educators for Excellence. Joseph, who had been on Family and Medical Leave Act leave since November, was approved Monday night to return to work Dec. 19. She then tendered her resignation, which also was approved by the board and was effective Dec. 22.

When asked by board member Darnell Goldson how the district plans to to get along without those administrators, Mayo said that he initially was not going to fill the communications position. He then concluded some part-time help might be in order. Goldson pointed out that because the position belongs to AFSCME Local 3144, which represents the city’s managerial positions, the union might have something to say about any hiring for the position.

Mayo told the board that he will not be filling Joseph’s position. He indicated after the meeting that he also will not be filling any teacher vacancies created by the most recent round of resignations either, at least not with full-time teachers.

“We’ll try to make a couple of the positions part time,” he said.

Mayo also downplayed the number of administrator retirements, saying in his experiences as many as 10 administrators put in retirements by this time of the year. He noted administrators who inform the school district about retirement plans before the end of the year get a $7,500 bonus because it gives the district time to search and plan for a replacement.

As far as the closing the budget deficit, Mayo said, so far he’s ​“feeling pretty confident” that enough changes can be made to fill the gap. He said he’ll be talking to principals this Wednesday to look at school level budget changes.

“It could be worse,” he said.