Leander ISD Considers Major Lay-offs of First Year Teachers

(Austin, TX) -- The American Statesman reports that the Leander School District is facing a projected 29-million dollar budget shortfall in their 2011/2012 budget, and now they are considering a plan that would lay-off 213 first-year teachers, change the start times of their schools, and cut golf and tennis programs, among several other cost cutting measures. The Leander School District is the 3rd largest school district in the Central Texas area with more than 32-thousand students, nearly 2-thousand teachers, and more than 4-thousand employees. The newly proposed cuts come after the district has already cut 250 positions, mostly from their central office, in order to save a little more than 11-million dollars. Other proposed changes include an increase in class size for kindergarten through 4th grade, two new schools would not open this fall and would stay vacant for a year, and district-issued cell phones and campus coffee programs would be eliminated. The district is still waiting to see how much of a gap they actually have to cover while the state legislature decides exactly how much to cut from public education spending.