CORBETT, Ore. — Teachers in the Corbett School District are questioning what comes next after being surprised by the announcement of layoffs in their small school district.
The district of about 1,100 students and nearly 90 teachers plans to cut 20% of its budget to make up for accounting errors allegedly made by the district’s longtime accountant.
The superintendent, Dr. Derek Fialkiewicz, said the district hired a chief financial officer in July, who began digging into the books and discovered alleged errors by the district’s unnamed accountant.
“I feel horrible about where we are,” said Fialkiewicz, during an interview Tuesday with KGW. “If I could go back in time and right the ship, I would do it in a heartbeat.”
Devon Groh, a Corbett kindergarten and first grade teacher, said news of the district's massive budget deficit due to alleged accounting errors came as a shock to him.
“We all know that we'll be able to pull it together and keep the high quality of education these students deserve,” Groh said, “but exactly how we're going to do that is causing anxiety.”
The superintendent refused to reveal the names of the three teachers, three administrators and four classified workers getting cut from the district, but he acknowledged they are some of the last people hired.
Fialkiewicz said in January, unassigned teachers will serve in classrooms affected by the cuts, and therefore, some students will be getting new instructors, mid-school year.
“They'll notice,” Fialkiewicz said, “but we'll try to minimize… we are not combining classes to explode class size.”
Teachers and community members question when the district first realized its budget was in trouble and to what degree.
“It's palpable how concerned everyone feels about the vagueness of the information we've been given,” said Groh, referring to the notice teachers received.
Fialkiewicz said as soon as the district's CFO began noticing accounting errors, he began informing staff in September on the amount of the deficit.
“As we continued to look at our financial statements and everything, and our CFO began digging in, that's when it started growing," he said. “Of course, no one is happy about it. I’m not happy about it. I don’t want to cut staff members. I don’t want to put people out of a job.”
Groh said teachers appreciate the community’s support and will maintain the high quality of education students deserve.
“We are all firing on all cylinders, making sure people and the students are being taken care of,” he said. “We push those emotions aside and really do what’s right for the children right now.”
The school district’s regularly scheduled meeting is set for Wednesday night at 7pm. Included within the agenda is a financial report by the superintendent and business manager detailing some of the recommended corrective actions the district should take to prevent financial mistakes from happening again.