Teacher, Staff Furlough Days Reduced at Fort Mill Schools (SC)

July 20, 2010

Furlough days for teachers and administrators have been reduced in a move the Fort Mill School Board put in place last week.

“The board approved the use of the state teacher supply fund to reduce teacher furlough days from three to two next year,” Leanne Lordo, assistant superintendent of finance and operations, said.

The administration and other staff, Lordo said, will have four furlough days. Those employees previously faced six furlough days.

The teacher supply fund, about $275 per teacher, is issued by the state to help teachers offset instruction or school supply-related costs, Lordo said.

During the 2009-2010 school year, the district lost $997,683 in state funding. The district’s purse strings took a second hit with a $1.3 million mid-year cut. Those combined cuts added up to a loss of $2.2 million District officials contend Fort Mill schools will see at least a $3.2 million loss during the 2010-2011 fiscal year.

As early as last February, the Fort Mill School Board was faced with the task of finding cost savings of more than $2 million to make up for proj ected shortfalls in the 2010-2011 fiscal year.

To offset the projected deficit, last spring the school board’s special budget committee completed its task of dissecting exactly which positions and programs the district could trim or eliminate from its 2010-2011 budget.

Those suggested cuts gained board approval to help the district realize $5.4 million in cost reductions. In addition to cutting 47 positions and various programs, the committee suggested furloughs: Teachers would face five furlough days while the administration would have to take 10 days. That part of the proposal was later reduced to three and six days for teachers and administrators, respectively.

Next came a decision.

Would the Fort Mill School District decide to use its share of the state teacher supply fund to reduce furlough days or save positions?

“The board decided to survey our teachers,” Lordo said. “We had 514 teachers respond. Sixty-five percent said that they favored using the state teacher supply fund to reduce furlough days or save positions.”

That paved the way for the school board last Tuesday to reduce the number of furlough days.

Elementary teachers will take their furlough days on Oct. 11 and Jan. 4, 2011, Lordo said.

Middle and high school teachers will observe their furlough days on Oct. 11 and Oct. 29, Lordo said.

District leaders contend the furlough day reduction will help take some of the sting wrought by a “painful” budget process that eliminated 27 teaching and 20 administration and support positions.

“It saves a lot of morale,” Lordo said. “The school board’s goal was to minimize the impact on teachers.”

The school district’s 2010-2011 budget went into effect July 1.