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800 Lost Jobs in Prince George’s County Schools

The approval of the 2010/2011 school budget means a loss of 355 teachers, and 800 jobs in total.

The Prince George’s Board of Education on Saturday eliminated hundreds of jobs, approved lengthy furloughs, slashed bus service and expanded class sizes for all but the youngest students under a budget for the 2010-11 school year.

Unlike in Montgomery County, which passed a schools budget earlier this month that largely maintains services while warning of potential cuts in coming months, the budget in Prince George’s County cuts deeply into every area of education.

The $1.66 billion budget represents a cut of 2.6 percent, or $45 million, from current spending levels and is more drastic than Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. proposed in December. The cuts will be felt throughout the 127,000-student school system, Maryland’s second-largest. And there is a chance that the school system will have to cut even deeper.

The budget calls for the elimination of 800 positions, including 355 in the classroom. Class sizes will rise by two students at every level except pre-kindergarten and kindergarten. More than 120 jobs of people who work as liaisons to parents and the community would be cut, and employees would have to take up to two weeks of furlough leave. Bus service to specialty programs would be modified to a hub system, lengthening commutes for children and making them take two buses as a way to reduce the total number of bus drivers. School lunch prices would rise by 50 cents.

ABC 7 News and NBC Washington also covered the story.

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