School board approves staff layoffs

The Lawrence school board didn’t play favorites Monday when handing out pink slips to certified educators.

Supt. Randy Weseman’s daughter, Leah, is among the 66 Lawrence public school teachers, nurses and counselors who will be formally notified by Thursday that their contracts won’t be renewed by the district.

Layoff decisions authorized by a 6-0 board vote were based on seniority and driven by the necessity to cut personnel costs.

“It’s painful on a professional and personal level,” the superintendent said. “This is a super group of teachers we’d like to keep in the district.”

Leah Weseman is a first-year teacher who is assigned to a first-grade class at Hillcrest School. Ironically, the same thing happened to the elder Weseman after his first year as a Lawrence teacher more than 25 years ago.

Scott Morgan, the board’s president, said voting to cut loose so many educators was a “tragedy.”

“These are real people, and some of them are real damn good people,” he said.

He said it was noteworthy that no teachers came to the meeting to object to the layoffs.

“This is a beaten-down community, including the staff,” Morgan said.

Mary Rodriguez, the district’s executive director of human resources, said one-fourth of the certified staff receiving notices might be rehired. Half of 65 teachers who received nonrenewal notices last year were brought back this year.

Meanwhile, about 60 classified employees serving as secretaries, janitors, food service or maintenance staff in the district could lose their jobs as well.

Final decisions on staffing must await completion of the 2003 legislative session and negotiations on a new teacher contract with Lawrence Education Assn.

The board tinkered with a $4 million list of possible cuts to academic and sports programs for 2003-2004. The board won’t decide how far to go into that list for at least another month, but is expected to take final action May 12 to close Riverside, East Heights and Centennial schools. That could save the district more than $1 million.

“We’ve reached the point in the budget process where the real pain begins,” said Austin Turney, the board’s vice president.

The board tabled discussion of adding $60,000 to salaries of substitute teachers to attract a larger pool of people willing to do that job. There have been 88 school days this year in which all teacher vacancies weren’t filled, Rodriguez said.