Chaos reigned in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools parent Facebook groups this week as concerned masses took to the internet to share rumors of teacher layoffs—which spread through a convoluted game of telephone—across the district. Several parents were upset that they heard about the “layoffs” from their children (who they say heard it from teachers) rather than from the district, racking up hundreds of comments on some posts.
Teachers fired, the Latin program eviscerated at Culbreth Middle School, French no longer offered at McDougle Middle School: The rumors were specific, grim, and—while not accurate—somewhat rooted in some reality.
On Thursday afternoon, superintendent Nyah Hamlett sent out an email to staff and families to do some damage control and to clarify that no teachers had been laid off—yet.
“CHCCS has not eliminated specific World Language or arts programming,” Hamlett wrote in bold. Parents, she said, were hearing from their kids about the “allotment” process, “a routine look at every school’s enrollment and current/projected course registration numbers to ensure that in the next school year teaching positions are distributed proportionately among our 20 schools.”
That’s not quite the same as the mass layoffs or overall program cuts that Facebookers worried about, but it does mean that 31 CHCCS staffers are in a very scary vocational purgatory through the spring.
No one usually hears about the allotment process because it’s normally pretty uninteresting, district spokesperson Andy Jenks tells INDY on a Friday afternoon phone call. He says that the district is aiming for an average class size of about 21 students for one teacher, which is a higher number of students than in past years.
“Four or five years ago, even as enrollment numbers were dropping, some of the allotments were held harmless or stayed the same. But as the years have gone on—and we’ve communicated our financial situation to our staff and to our community—this is an example of where difficult decisions are being made to ensure the long-term financial health of our district,” says Jenks. As in most North Carolina school districts, enrollment is down in CHCCS (the district has lost about 1,000 students, or 7 percent, in the past five years), meaning some classes may struggle to hit the new target enrollment.
It’s also forcing some tough decisions. If, hypothetically, only five students sign up for a French class, should the school have a full-time French teacher? What if only one student signs up?
Hamlett said that the district is looking at “creative” solutions, like having a teacher travel to multiple schools in a day or having students travel to other schools for some electives.
When those 31 staff members heard from their principals last week that their positions might not exist next year, some of them (reasonably!) told their students who then told their parents.
Hamlett said that each staffer is in a unique circumstance. “This could include, but is not necessarily limited to: Their position is transferring to another school, their position is not (yet) available for 2025-26 because of enrollment or course registration numbers (but this could change), or another situation that is unique to their position or their school.” The superintendent also said that “we can’t make guarantees at this time” about finding other positions for the affected staff, or whether students would have the option to take certain elective courses next school year.
While this week’s rumors may have gotten ahead of themselves, CHCCS parents are on edge for some good reasons: A reduction in force (RIF) plan was put into effect last year, though that plan was focused on cuts to the central office before impacting anyone in a student-facing role. They’re also likely reading national news, from which the word “layoffs” may immediately trigger an image of a Linda McMahon-led Department of Education primly laying down in a faulty magician’s box to be gutted by the frenetic chainsaw of a perky Elon Musk.
Last week, when we asked Jenks about federal funding to try to figure out what may be at risk, he highlighted about $12 million in the 2024 fiscal year. That includes $5 million from the department of education for Title I, special education, and other programs, as well as $2.8 million from the department of agriculture for school nutrition programs.
“Of the total federal funds, $9.25 million (4.1 percent of the district’s overall expenditures) is recurring, while the remainder consists of one-time pandemic relief funding that is no longer available,” said Jenks. “If there were reductions or eliminations in federal funding, we would have to look at reallocating local dollars to make sure all students continue to receive the support they need.”
If that does happen, administrators seem to have learned this week that it’s best to keep their communication frequent and upfront with the highly-educated and eagle-eyed parents of CHCCS.
“While the yearly allotment process has not typically been the topic of districtwide communication, we acknowledge that clear information directly from us would have been beneficial,” wrote Hamlett this week.
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Reach Reporter Chase Pellegrini de Paur at chase@indyweek.com. Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.