Quincy School District cuts 13 paraeducators

1 month, 4 weeks ago

Interim Superintendent said this will save the district $300,000

13 paraeducators were cut from the Quincy School District at Wednesday night’s meeting.

According to Interim Superintendent Joel Murphy, this cut will save the district over $300,000.

The 13 employees cut were all hired this school year.

“One of those last hired, first fired type of situations,” said Murphy. “We will evaluate if the district needs to call them back or not, but that’s a situation that we need to look at on a later date.”

Murphy said hopefully these cuts won’t affect the students at all.

“We’ll look at student needs, and how we can best meet those with the staff that we have.”

This is the fifth straight year for budget cuts.

“If you look back at what we’ve done in years past, this is minor compared to some of the cuts that were done over the last three or four years,” said Murphy. “To get by with only 13 is really pretty good.” 

In other business, modifications to the superintendent and interim superintendent contracts were approved by a 6-1 vote. The contracts now state interim superintendent Murphy will end his contract on the end of the day April 14th and resume as Business Manager on April 15th. Superintendent Steve Cobb will begin with the district on April 15rather than the previously stated date of July 1.

Murphy said it’s bittersweet.

“You get into a groove and doing some great things and would like to take some ideas that you have and move forward but we also need someone permanently sitting in this seat,” said Murphy. “We need someone to take the reins and do some visioning and moving in the good direction. Bringing Cobb in early will be a real help for the district.”

Board member Bud Niekamp opposed the modifications, saying he “Can’t seem to understand why the board would want to do that. It goes against the people already here.”

Central office reorganization was also discussed and approved. Murphy and Cobbs put together a chart and plan to create three different positions out of current positions that would better fit the needs of the district and save money. New positions created will be two academic directors and a director of human resources. Currently, positions that currently perform these duties cost the district a total of $487,000 in salaries. With the reorganization, the three positions would cost between $410,000 and $450,000. Job positions will be posted Thursday, March 21.

The special alternative school program’s contract with Chaddock ends this school year, and currently costs $540,000 for 30 students enrolled. The board approved that the program be conducted within the district rather than with Chaddock and housed in the lower level of the District office. Costs for the start-up year would be $515,000. For years to follow, the annual costs to the district would be $413,000. The goal is to save money and integrate students more so with the district. The board approved with a 6-1 present vote.

Waste disposal and recycling bids were also accepted. The board approved a three year contract with Allied Waste for the low bid of $93,188.76. Area Disposal and Waste also put in a bid of $180,646. Allied Waste and QPS currently have a contract that will end this year and were able to put together a more precise bid.