80 percent of districts expect no layoffs in 2014-15

On Board Online • May 26, 2014

Staff Report

A substantial majority of school districts expect no actual layoffs of teaching or non-teaching staff in the 2014-2015 school year, according to a recent survey conducted by NYSSBA.

Eighty percent of 283 school business officials responding to the NYSSBA survey said they do not expect to lay off employees based on their budgets for next year. About 20 percent said they plan to impose layoffs.

According to the State Education Department, more than 7,000 of the state’s teachers were laid off in 2011 and 20,000 teaching positions were lost over the three years prior to that.

Survey respondents also indicated the possibility that some districts will hire more teachers. Nearly half (49 percent) of the respondents said they could see an increase in teaching staff.

The survey of 611 school business officials was conducted in May 2014.