Riverhead schools to eliminate 56.8 full-time faculty and staff positions through layoffs and attrition— cuts to classes and programs coming

Riverhead schools will see significant cuts to class offerings, programs, teaching assistants and support staff as a result of cutbacks proposed in the administration’s budget for the coming school year.

The Riverhead Central School District administration proposes eliminating a total of 56.8 full-time equivalent faculty, staff and support positions next year, Interim Assistant Superintendent for Business Marianne Cartisano said during last night’s school board meeting. Eliminating the positions allows the district to reduce potential expenditures for salary and benefits by $6.68 million. 

The administration has proposed a $201.4 million budget for next school year — an increase of $9.4 million, or roughly 5%, over its current budget. The proposal would require a tax levy increase of 3.34%, the maximum allowed by the state-imposed tax levy cap in Riverhead next year. Several of the positions being cut were funded by a portion of roughly $20 million in federal coronavirus recovery funding the district received over the last three school years. The federal funding runs out this year. 

Staff in the district’s four elementary schools and Pulaski Intermediate School would take the largest hit. A total of 10 full-time equivalent academic intervention specialist teachers, one elementary guidance counselor, one elementary psychologist, one elementary specialized math teacher and 18 teaching assistant positions would be eliminated next year, according to Cartisano. (Seven of the teaching assistant positions to be eliminated are currently vacant, she said.) An additional seven elementary school teachers are retiring and will not be replaced.

The elementary school staffing cuts will require the district to significantly reduce its K-4 dual language program — which this school year was expanded to each of the four elementary school buildings.

The district is legally and contractually obligated to cut staff based on seniority, with the least senior staff members being laid off first, Cartisano said. Since many of the teachers staffing the dual language program are more recent hires, and the first to be laid off, the district will not have enough certified faculty needed to keep the program in its current state, she said.

A total of 6.6 full time positions will be cut from Riverhead Middle School, Cartisano said. (3.4 of those positions are currently vacant.) Due to the cuts, the Riverhead Middle School will be changed from a nine class period day to an eight period day. 

In the high school, 10.2 faculty positions (3.6 of which are currently vacant) and one assistant principal would be eliminated. The nine-period day in the high school would remain, Cartisano said. Unless required for graduation, a high school course with fewer than 15 students enrolled will not go forward, Cartisano said.

The school district’s Latin classes — a long-standing course offering that was almost eliminated in 2020, which the district found a full-time instructor for in 2021 — have been cut due to low enrollment, Cartisano said in an interview after the board meeting.

Cartisano said the budget proposal keeps several programs intact, including school clubs and performing groups; athletic teams; occupational education programs; reading and math support services; art, music, physical education and library services; the evening school program; the summer school credit recovery program; the North Star Academy credit recovery program; and the NJROTC program. Cartisano said the district’s pre-Kindergarten program will remain in-house and staffed by members of the Riverhead Central Faculty Association, the district’s teacher’s union.

“I will tell you that we did not take the easy route,” Cartisano said. “And what do I mean by that? The easy route would have been to reduce the high school [nine period day]; raise elementary class size; diminish and reduce your athletic programs; cut clubs. I could have done that in a weekend, and we would have been done,” she said.

“But that would have destroyed your district,” Cartisano continued. “And in my opinion, it would have taken you a decade to recover. And in that decade, the children who attend Pulaski may not be in this high school for a nine period day. The children who are attending school in Kindergarten this year would start in classes with a higher class size. So we embarked on a journey to do this in a systematic way and minimize the impact as best we could. But as we have already said, every cut and every reduction is going to affect someone.”

With the cuts, the school district will have roughly 560 full time instructional employees, down from 618 in October of last year, according to staffing statistics presented by Cartisano. The amount of instructional employees is still a significant increase from the 493 instructional employees recorded in 2021, which was when the district started receiving federal coronavirus aid and a large influx of state foundation aid.

Cartisano said employees whose positions are being eliminated are being given “high consideration” for open positions in the district, including as substitute teachers and teacher aides

The district has not seen significant changes in student enrollment throughout the last few years, Cartisano said. The district is projecting an enrollment of 5,522 students next school year, a slight increase over this year’s enrollment.

The school board is scheduled to vote on adopting a budget on April 16 and hold a hearing on the budget May 14. The budget will be up for a vote by district residents on May 21.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect additional information presented during the school board meeting.