Wisconsin school staffing holds steady after years of decline

Bill Lueders:

Newly released data from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction show that staffing levels at state public schools held steady last year, despite fears that changes initiated by Gov. Scott Walker would prompt additional losses.

The number of employees did drop in some program areas and in some districts, according to the DPI's summary report. And overall staffing remains significantly lower than five years ago.

"District job losses as the result of budget cuts have stabilized, and in some cases become one-year positive readjusts," DPI spokesman John Johnson said. Despite this rebound, he said, many districts are still hurting for staff, "and student services programs have been cut dramatically."

The data, released this week, tally staff levels for the 2012-13 school year as they existed on the third Friday in September.

They show that the state's 424 school districts had 99,265 full-time equivalent positions in 2012-13. That's up 25 positions from 2011-12, but down a total of 5,200 FTE positions since 2008-09.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at June 28, 2013 12:47 AM
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