All teachers laid off from the Salem-Keizer School District during a round of spring budget cuts have been offered new jobs or decided they don’t want the job they were offered.
More than half of the classified workers who were laid off or had hours cut have also been placed in other jobs in the district. That group includes classroom assistants, school office workers and other support workers.
District leaders in May cut hundreds of jobs, some vacant. That resulted in the layoff of 112 employees and cut hours for dozens more classified workers.
The school district employs about 5,000 people and has about 38,000 students.
As of Friday, 35 teachers have been recalled, a process spelled out in union contracts where laid off workers are offered jobs as they become available based on seniority because of resignations or retirements.
Two more have had a job offered to them, and 12 either declined to be recalled or withdrew from the list.
Salem-Keizer School District officials provided data on the recall process Friday after a request from Salem Reporter. The numbers don’t differentiate between classified employees laid off and those who had hours cut.
Among classified workers, 38 are still waiting to be called back, 45 have accepted recall jobs, and three have been offered a job and haven’t yet made a decision. Sixteen workers declined a job they were offered or dropped out of the process.
District and union leaders in the spring said they expected many employees would be recalled as jobs in schools opened up over the summer.
Tyler Scialo-Lakeberg, president of the Salem-Keizer Education Association, said Friday that about 100 teachers had quit since the end of the school year and more retired. The result was many open jobs for laid off workers.
She said those numbers aren’t unusual and don’t reflect a sudden wave of teachers quitting following budget cuts.
“That’s on par, probably on the lower end, than previous years which is good,” she said.
Most of those returning will be working in a different school than the one they were laid off from, district data shows. Twenty-four teachers were called back to a different school than the one they were laid off from, while nine are returning to the same school.
While educators said last school year that they were concerned about losing colleagues and having fewer people in schools, many also expressed concerns about the instability resulting from a massive shuffling of the district’s workforce.
More than 740 workers last year were moved to new schools or departments as part of the layoffs due to a complicated “bumping” process where a more senior employee whose job is cut can then take a junior employee’s job.
The recall process is designed to get people employed as quickly as possible, but workers called back can request a “job swap” with another employee if both agree, district spokesman Aaron Harada said.
“We very much want to support employees with working in the locations and assignments they prefer!” he said in an email. ”An employee is also welcome to apply for any available position for which they are qualified and have an interest, even if that position was not one for which they were eligible for recall.”
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
