Metro Public Schools Director Dr. Shawn Joseph outlined on Tuesday what he calls a "painful" set of proposed budget cuts.
Because of a drop in city revenue, MNPS got $17 million less than they asked for from the city of Nashville for the 2018-2019 school year. Departments facing the biggest cuts will be the central office and nearly 90 Reading Recovery positions.
At a budget hearing on Tuesday night administration officials said because of the drop in funding, no employee will be getting a raise for the coming year. But officials from Dr. Joseph's office continued to stand behind their commitment to not reduce the budgets of any individual schools.
"We were dealt a hand that was hard to count," Dr. Shawn Joseph told school board members.
The consolidated will mean the following budget cuts:
- Restructure central office staff by cutting 30 positions, this will impact nearly every department
- Move three charter school position to a special revenue account for service to charter schools
- Reduce spending on contracts, supplies, materials and travel
- Stop funding reimbursement of exams feeds for high school students taking advance academic exams for college credits
- Scale back STEAM implementation
- Repurpose 85.5 Reading Recovery positions
School board members will now have a week to review the revised budget before they vote on it next week.
