Monroe schools approve sending pink slips to entire staff

4/12/2011

MONROE — Monroe Public Schools officials on Tuesday night gave unanimous approval to sending pink slips to the district’s entire staff of teachers, principals, and other administrators.

The notice of the layoffs to 343 teachers and 19 administrators was done to comply with union contracts that require providing 60-day notices to employees that they could lose their jobs.

Superintendent Randy Monday said the district needed to take the drastic measures while it sorts through planning needed for next year’s budget and funding cuts proposed in Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget.

The school district could be looking at up to a $5.6 million deficit, in part, because of the governor’s plan to cut funding by $470 per student. Mr. Monday said that most of the employees who are being laid off would be called back to work.

Nearly 500 people attended the meeting in the Middle School, and many of those in the audience attended an earlier rally outside the building to protest cuts in education funding that Gov. Snyder has proposed.