Anne Arundel school officials now are saying 150 teaching positions might not all be left vacant.
“We expect torestore a significant number of these,” said school system spokesman Bob Mosier.
“Do I have a number? No. But do I expect it to be significant? Yes.”
The number is contingent on the actual funding the County Council approves when the final fiscal 2009 operating and capital budgets are voted on today ? and the school system?s response, he said.
“Obviously, the more positions that are restored the better, because it?s tied to the [teachers?] workload issue,” said Bill Jones, executive director of the Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County.
The school system learned this week that it could receive an additional $14 million toward its proposed $968.8 million fiscal 2009 operating budget after the County Council approved some budget amendments.
School officials said the school system would save about $9 million if the 150 positions remained vacant.
In March, the school system announced it would hold those teaching positions vacant for the 2008-09 school year, in addition to the 50 being held open this school year, said Superintendent Kevin Maxwell.
“We announced the staffing allocation in March because that?s the time when principals get their staffing allocations,” Mosier said.
Since the school system planned to hold positions vacant, some teachers are in the process of changing schools, Maxwell said.
Some identified teachers, mainly those hired with one-year, provisional contracts, have begun to make plans to move to different schools or even have accepted jobs elsewhere in the school system, officials said.
It?s unknown whether they might return to their current school next year.
