Lincoln lays off 62 teachers

By Mark Tower
May. 11, 2010    ·    2:20 p.m.

Superintendent Lynn Cleary had a smile on her face as she spoke about the millage recently passed by Linconln Consolidated School district voters at the Board of Education meeting Monday night.

Her attitude suddenly turned serious when she asked the board to approve the layoff of 62 teachers in the district, to be effective as of June 14. These layoffs, she said, are mostly temporary and the majority of the laid-off teachers will be re-offered jobs in the district for the 2010-2011 school year.

It may seem strange that the layoffs come days after voters approved a tax levy that will fund $35 million in improvements to district buildings and technology, but property tax revenue can only fund capital improvements at Michigan districts and cannot pay for teacher salaries or operational costs.

Sylvester Rowan, executive director of human resources for Lincoln, said the district and its teachers union came to an agreement to lay off the teachers, despite the fact that actual layoffs next year will be less than the 62 total approved unanimously by board members Monday.

“We expect to be re-employing a number of those teachers,” Rowan said. “We will know the exact number by the end of the year.”

The district is waiting on better enrollment predictions from each building for 2010-2011 before the make the final determination for any teacher layoffs, he said. By notifying the teachers of layoffs now, district administrators said they can offer those teachers different positions next year without violating union contracts.

Teachers given pink slips were from multiple buildings in the district at high school, middle school and elementary levels.