The cuts that were made in positions in WSFCS this past school year (RIFs, etc.) were drastic, untimely, and harsh. And the most affected were those in EC classrooms and other “student-facing” positions.

Before tonight’s school board meeting that is to see the unveling of next year’s budget request, Supt. Phipps and WSFCS released a “preemptive” video with a scripted message about seeking “stability” for next school year.

You can watch that video in full here.

What seems to have been “lost in translation” is the exact toll those cuts may have taken.

A good friend who teaches at Atkins High School terms it the “silent cuts” that arise from those who simply took jobs elsewhere without being asked becasue their faith in the WSFCS eroded or those who chose not to return next school year.

Lee Childress, NCAE member and candidate for school board here in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County, posted this today:

Look at that again.

WSFCS schools did not RIF that many people.

If the average salary of those 1,250 was $35K, then that is a total of over $43 million in just salary.

While Dr. Phipps explains in the video that next year’s numbers are affected by the formula surrounding ADM (average Daily attendance), it seems like we have proportionally fewer educators/staff even if we didn’t lose 1500 students in the system.

And will those positions be refilled? Probably not. They will be “silently cut” so to speak.

Nothing really said about that from Central Office.