WESTLAND, Mich. (WXYZ) — Staff, students, and parents in the Wayne-Westland school district are shaken up after learning the district is laying off certain staff members.
This comes after the district announced they have a huge budget shortfall.
“I feel staff are just showing up every day to work and doing so under fear,” said Tonya Karpinksi, executive director of the Wayne-Westland Michigan Education Association.
Karpinski represents nearly 1,000 staff members in the Wayne-Westland school district.
According to district officials, 24 full-time and part-time positions will be cut by the end of January.
Superintendent John Dignan recently sent out a letter to the community saying the district is exploring the possibility of privatizing its transportation services.
“We don’t know what the district believes the possible savings are by doing that so we have a group of about 80 staff impacted by that,” said Karpinski.
Last month, the district announcedthat they had a shortfall of $17.6 million due to a miscalculation of COVID funds. We spoke to parents around that time who were concerned about how the district’s finances would impact their children's education.
“They’re playing musical chairs with teachers, displacing students, eliminating classes, interrupting the pattern of learning that is going on with these students,” said Jessica West, parent.
On Wednesday, the district sent 7 Action News a statement about the recent layoffs.
“We have been able to identify areas where change can occur without impacting the essential educational services being provided to our students and families. As a result, Wayne-Westland Community Schools notified individuals of layoffs and restructuring in this effort to begin to right-size the district.”
Meanwhile, Karpinski added that the upcoming holidays will be tough for the staff members who will be laid off.
“They don’t know if they will be celebrating Christmas with gifts or looking forward to the joy of the family time and the holiday spirits because, instead, they’re looking at other jobs,” she said.
