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Update on Reduction in Teaching Staff Hello Millburn Families, I wanted to take a moment to update you about a staff reduction that is happening this year. In no way is it as severe as it was last year, but given the circumstances, I wanted you to hear about it first-hand from me and not via the rumor mill. I need to strongly emphasize that the reduction has nothing to do with the budget crunch we face; it has to do with leaves of absence and a declining enrollment. We have 4 teachers who are out on a leave of absence for this year. They had until March 1st to let us know if they were going to return or not. All of them have decided to return; therefore, it will be necessary for us to lay off 4 non-tenured teachers. We welcome back Mary Grom, Trish Phelan, Andrea Kitowski, and Dave Schroeder to our Millburn family! Also, we have found that we have fewer students enrolled in kindergarten for the fall than we had anticipated. Although it is still early and the numbers may change, we must do the releases now and rehire back as our numbers grow. At this time, we have only 20 students registered at West and 85 at Central. We will need to reduce by 1 staff member. Many of you may be asking why we must do this so early in the school year. Please understand that we are legally obligated to release teachers from their contracts 60 school days prior to the end of the term. It is the law and we have no choice. It must happen at the regular BOE meeting as close to that time as possible and for us, that date is March 15th. Some of you might be wondering how this could impact your families. Since we are releasing 5 teachers, those teachers may not necessarily be the teachers in the positions that have low enrollment or are the positions that the teachers on a leave of absence vacated. Teachers on a leave of absence are only guaranteed a position for which they are certified, not the exact same position they left at the same grade level in the same building. That means we may have some internal shifting going on so that we can best place the returning teachers where they will be best for your children. This process will happen at the March 15th BOE meeting, but the teachers being let go will find out earlier than that, the week of March 8-12. We just wanted you to have a heads up as to what was coming. If you are concerned about this or have questions, please call or email me directly. Thank you for your understanding. Sincerely, Dr. Ellen E. Mauer
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