SPOKANE, Wash. — Rogers High School teachers received the most layoff notices out of any district school after Spokane Public Schools publicly issued 325 layoffs to staff throughout the district, according to records obtained by KREM.
Sixteen John R. Rogers High School teachers received layoff notices, according to records. Willard and Regal both had nine teacher layoff notices.
Shaw Middle School and Sheridan Elementary School are sitting at the No. 3 school, with seven layoffs at each school.
North Central High School, Garry Middle School and Logan Elementary School took the No. 4 spot, with six layoffs per each school.
Arlington, Audobon, Cooper, Holmes, Lidgerwood, Lincoln Heights Elementary Schools are tied for the fifth spot, with five teacher layoffs at each school.
The layoff are all based on seniority, so the newest teachers were the ones who received layoff notices.
The district will make the final decision on layoffs when its 2019-20 budget is finalized in August. District leaders say they don't believe the number of layoffs will drastically change by then.
Layoff notices were issued in April due to union contract requirements.
One Spokane teacher told KREM that she is one of 16 certified staff members set to be laid off from Rogers High School in North Spokane. In her post on Facebook, Stacie Collier said the layoffs are disproportionate because some schools aren’t seeing any layoffs at all.
KREM asked Coddington why the layoffs appear disproportionate, with some schools seeing more teachers laid off than others.
He attributes this to fluctuating turnover rates throughout the district.
"So they've got newer or younger staff, newer in their profession I should say. Some schools in the district are going to have a greater turnover. So that means they're going to have staff that's not quite as tenured in their career at Spokane Public Schools," Coddington said.
The district will back fill some lost teacher positions with teachers from other schools, according to SPS spokesman Brian Coddington. So even though some schools did not have teachers who received layoff notices, they may still lose staff.
View the full list of layoff numbers below:
SPS publicly issued layoff notices to 325 staff members on Thursday, April 11. That includes 183 teaching-level staff.
The layoffs were based on seniority, according to the district.
Classified employees, including custodial and clerical staff, will learn about layoffs soon, according to district spokesman Brian Coddington.
The district currently has 4,110 employees, Coddington said. The cuts account for an 8 percent reduction in staff overall.
