More than 50 teachers and support staff at the Timberlane School District are in danger of losing their jobs due to funding.
The problem, school administrators say, is that because a higher proposed budget failed with voters, an almost $72 million default budget will go into effect. And that default budget doesn’t allow staffing numbers to stay where they are.
Earl Metzler is Superintendent for Timberlane School District and says he believes the default budget was calculated inaccurately. “Several School Board members took it upon themselves to do the default budget arbitrarily and did not take into consideration the line by line default budget that the business administrator prepared,” Metzler says.
The default budget will come up about $2 million short of what it should be, according to Metzler.
Ryan Richman is President of the Timberlane Teachers Association and says he’d voiced concerns about the default budget at committee meetings.
“I’ve been here 15 years and I’ve never seen a budget process like this past year,” Richman says.
Superintendent Metzler says he has by April 15 to let employees know about contract renewals.
