Lubbock ISD Board of Trustees Approves Personnel Cuts to Central Office

At a special meeting this morning, the Lubbock ISD Board of Trustees voted unanimously to cut an unspecified number of central office personnel to help meet a projected budget shortfall.  Preliminary projections have LISD receiving $27 million less in funding next school year, and the district has set of goal of cutting $10 million dollars in expenses.  The cuts approved for central office will amount to $3.5 million dollars.

LISD board member Dan Pope spoke on the dais about the difficulty of making the cuts, “These type of decisions if you just were to listen to the rabble-rousers or read the bloggers these decisions are simple.  Do this, do that, and you eliminate positions; (but) it’s just not that simple.”

Also, a 2.5 percent raise due to Superintendent Dr. Karen Garza, will be rescinded.  The raise was part of her contract extension signed back in January.

LISD School President James Arnold discussed the effect of the cuts, “This will impact how we deliver service to the campuses.  I don’t want people to think this was something that we’re cutting fluff out of our budget.  This will impact directly how we deliver services to our kids on the campuses.  The other thing is these folks that we’re talking about today (the layoffs) are our friends, our neighbors, they’re taxpayers, and so we entered into this with a lot of thought and a lot of concern.”

LISD central office employees that will lose their positions in the Reduction in Force layoffs are scheduled to be notified by the end of the week.  The employees laid-off will be eligible for Separation Agreements ranging from $2,000 to $10,000 dollars.  Part-time employees will receive $2,000, full-time non-contractual employees will be paid $5,000 and contractual employees will receive $10,000.