PULASKI COUNTY, Ark. (KTHV) - Two hundred jobs were eliminated from the Pulaski County Special School District on Wednesday.
This is a 25 percent cut from the district’s work force.
“This has been a really hard day for the PCSSD family,” said Dr. Jerry Guess, district superintendent.
The split from Jacksonville forced these cuts. With less students, less staff is needed.
“We're losing about 4,000 students with the Jacksonville detachment, that's equal to about $40 million in total revenue,” said Dr. Guess.
On Wednesday, 100 people and almost 200 positions were cut.
“It's a mixture of professionally licensed people and support staff,” said Dr. Guess.
Operations alone cut 150 positions in areas including maintenance, security, engineering and transportation. Department director Derek Scott will adjust responsibilities so workloads will remain the same.
“We're going to try and combine some of the positions to be able to retain the skill sets that we need,” said Scott.
More positions than people were cut, because PCSSD is already short staffed in some areas, including bus transportation.
“We need 45 drivers that we don't have, so we're going to say all bus drivers have a job next year,” said Dr. Guess.
Dr. Guess is working to shift around people internally to keep them in the family.
“We're going to be very, very aggressive about trying to help those people find vacant positions,” said Dr. Guess.
Looking at the big picture, PCSSD hopes no one goes jobless.
“We're hoping that when the music stops, everybody has a chair,” explained Scott.
Dr. Guess told THV11 all laid-off employs will continue to work through their contracts with PCSSD, which end on June 30.
The Jacksonville split includes the high school and middle school, North Pulaski High School and six elementary schools.