TAMPA — The Hillsborough County School District is moving quickly to reduce its employee head count by transferring perhaps hundreds of support teachers into classroom jobs.
"We expect to have 225 employees that are being reassigned," district spokeswoman Tanya Arja said, acknowledging later that the number could include administrators.
Some assistant principals are also being sent back to the classroom, although Arja did not know how many. "We will have a one-week transfer period in November," she said.
The timetable puts those moves weeks and maybe months ahead of the work under way by deputy superintendent Van Ayres, who is heading a committee to determine how best to allocate teachers in the large district.
Ayres' committee will focus largely on staffing for the 2017-18 school year, Arja said.
The employees affected by this month's transfers will include resource teachers, who develop curriculum in the district's downtown headquarters and area offices, and some specialists who work in the schools supervising other teachers and sometimes pulling students out of class for individual instruction.
At last count, the district had about 200 classroom teaching vacancies. A hiring freeze has been in effect since Oct. 11 with the ultimate goal of moving the specialists into classrooms.
"The goal now is to have qualified teachers that meet the needs of our students," Arja said.
At a principals' meeting on Wednesday, superintendent Jeff Eakins explained the dilemma: Too many support teachers are paid from the general fund, which, at $1.8 billion, is the largest component of the district's overall budget of $2.8 billion.
The general fund reserves lost more than $200 million between 2011 and 2015, triggering negative reports from the district's bond rating agencies. The district has been working to cut costs ever since.
While special revenue — mostly from the federal government — can be used to pay some of the specialists, that does not always happen.
Eakins, according to the Power-Point he used, believes it would be unwise to drain the reserves again, or load up classes with more students.
Instead, he is opting for what he called "sustainability within the organization." In addition to reducing the number of support teaching jobs, he will work to make the best possible use of the special revenue funds.
Not all schools will be treated in the same way. Those with higher needs, based on conditions including poverty in their communities, will get more or different kinds of support.
Stephanie Baxter-Jenkins, executive director of the teachers' union, said she is working with district leaders to help oversee the employee transfers.
"While we don't necessarily agree with the decision or timing, those are choices management has the right to make, and we are bargaining the impact of such changes," she said.
"We have been in many conversations where we've tried to bring a positive impact to the choices that they're making so that classrooms and work that needs to be done are not affected."
The teacher transfers are not the only source of uncertainty in what is the largest single workforce in the Tampa Bay area.
In recent months the district has cut clerical jobs and taken early steps to shift custodial work from day to night hours. It is expected that some janitors will leave because of the changed hours, and the district's efficiency consultant has recommended a reduction in the custodial staff.
Teachers, meanwhile, are still working under terms of their 2015-16 contract.
After a long hiatus, the district and the teachers union held a negotiating session on Wednesday.
The district offered teachers a $200 cost of living raise, which union leaders were prepared to accept if they could be assured that the following year's pay rates would kick in on July 1, 2017, the start of the fiscal year.
District negotiators said no to that request, saying that the financial picture is too uncertain.
Negotiations will continue at 2 p.m. Monday.
Contact Marlene Sokol at (813) 810-5068 or msokol@tampabay.com. Follow @marlenesokol.