Tommy Kranz

Job jitters are bouncing off the walls in some Hamilton County schools as employees wonder who among them will end this school year without a job for the next.

“Everybody is paranoid that they might lose their job,” said Jamie Isenhour, one of two librarians at Hixson High School. “Every time the phone rings, I think, ‘Uh oh.’”

Hamilton County Board of Education members unanimously approved a balanced budget for fiscal year 2009, which includes cutting 98 positions from the payroll. Eighty-three of those jobs will be school based, and 15 will come from the central office.

School district administrators said personnel cuts and other reductions were necessary to erase a $9.6 million shortfall and balance next year’s $298 million budget.

Although most principals already have a good idea of who they’ll have to let go, employees have not yet been informed. Administrators say they are trying to determine where affected employees could be moved to fill vacancies created by resignations and retirements, said Tyner Academy principal Carol Goss.

“If I talk to someone and say, ‘Your position is being eliminated,’ I want to be able to say, ‘But here’s a place where you can have a job’,” she said. “I want to be fair with them.”

Chief Financial Officer Tommy Kranz said he hopes only about 15 people at the most will be without a job once all transfers have taken place and employees have been shuffled around the district.

“We’re trying to minimize the number of people receiving the pink slip,” he said.

Human resources officials are beginning the process of talking with affected employees to inform them of their options, Mr. Kranz said. According to the teachers’ contract, certified employees such as teachers must be told by May 15 whether they have a job next year, and classified employees must be informed by June 15, he said.

Chances are any teachers affected will be nontenured, newer employees, Ms. Goss said.

“And a lot of time your energy comes from your new teachers,” Ms. Goss said. “It’s an interesting, complex problem.”

Casey Jackson is in his first year teaching theater at Ooltewah High School. He’s one of three theater instructors and the only one without tenure. Despite next year’s uncertainty, he said he remains hopeful.

“I am cautiously optimistic,” he said. “Our department is a fairly popular elective, so we’ve got a lot of kids.”

The more than 80 school-based positions to be cut represent 1.76 percent of school-based employees, while the 15 central office positions to be eliminated represent nearly 5 percent of staff working out of the Bonny Oaks office.

Besides cutting 10 change coaches, who research teaching methods to assist high-school teachers, the only cut position that has been publicly announced is the director of information services. According to a statement released by the school system Friday, Wayne Starr will be paid through June.

Mr. Starr could not be reached for comment Friday.

Lakweshia Tibbs, Hamilton County’s coordinator for family engagement and community partnerships, said she hasn’t heard which positions will be cut. Central office employees like herself are just as much in the dark as those in the schools, she said.

“I pray it’s not me, but I don’t know,” she said.

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