Scores of Teachers Being Laid Off in Camden School District
By Mark Abrams
CAMDEN, N.J. (CBS) -- The Camden School District is laying off 78 teachers and trimming 67 student support staff by the end of the school year as part of budget cuts totaling $49 million.
Camden schools superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard says the evaluation and budget process had been going on since January, and all those who will lose their jobs at the end of this academic year were notified yesterday.
"Thirty-one teachers are impacted due to expenditure reductions," he said today. "Forty-seven teachers are impacted due to performance. With student support staff, 46 are impacted, due to, again, expenditure reductions and budget inefficiency, and 21 have been impacted due to performance."
Rouhanifard says the reductions could have been worse, but he credited teacher retirements and resignations with holding down the overall numbers of layoffs.
He said declining enrollment also drove the numbers and he's comfortable the school district, thanks in part to a sharing of services with charter schools, will have a much more manageable budget.
Camden's superintendent finalizes layoffs affecting 145 positions.