http://66.225.205.104/SO20100128a.mp3
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Peter Gorman Wednesday put a hiring freeze on non-teaching jobs with the district. WFAE's Simone Orendain has more: Peter Gorman says the district doesn't have a definite idea of what it will receive from the state and county for next school year's budget. He says right now, the district is looking at far-ranging possibilities such as an increase of three percent or a cut of seven percent. With this much uncertainty Gorman says he's planning for the worst and hoping for the best. For now he issued a hiring freeze effective immediately on non-instructional positions. "What does that mean? That means that were are going to continue to hire teachers. We will hire principals, but there are even some positions on the instructional side that we will be evaluating," he says. Gorman says some assistant principal vacancies could remain open. In anticipation of possible layoffs in the spring, he says it wouldn't be fair to hire assistant principals now only to let them go five months later. There are currently 215 openings in the district. One hundred-twenty-two of those are non-instructional and now frozen. Like last year the state told schools to prepare scenarios of three, five and seven percent cuts. Gorman foresees a five percent cut from the state's allocation, which he says would amount to about $32 million. He also expects the county's funding to remain flat. The CMS budget has remained around $1.1 billion since the 2007-2008 school year.