Lay-offs may be looming for faculty members at Greensburg Community Schools.
The school district plans to reportedly cut $500,000 in expenditures for next school year. School superintendent Tom Hunter says it is the result of state funding that continues to decline, state property tax caps and rising expenses.
“Health insurance has gone up dramatically the past few years, our liability insurance has gone up, price of utilities has gone up,” Hunter said. “The only thing I can do is reduce our greatest expense and that is personnel.”
Hunter noted that the corporation is not in a current financial crisis. By making the difficult decision now, it could avoid a major issue in a few years.
“It is just being financially prudent. Our revenues are not equaling our expenditures. So we have to cut our expenditures back. [If] we don’t address this, and five years from now we are in a cataclysmic situation,” Hunter explained.
District officials are considering different options including not replacing teachers, administrators and non-teaching staff that leave the corporation or retire.
“I do not like doing this. I had to be a part of this one other time and it is not a pleasant thing for anybody because you are impacting people’s lives,” the superintendent said. “It is the business part of school and occasionally it does have to take place.”
Job cuts have not yet been made. The next school board meeting is scheduled for May 13.
