ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester City School District recently put dozens of teachers on notice that they would be losing their jobs at the end of the school year, after a more than 40% drop in enrollment over the past 20 years and 11 schools set to close.

Fifty-three teachers with the Rochester City School District were projected to get laid off. Due to retirements and resignations, 30 of those teachers were placed on notice.

News10NBC spoke with RCSD School Board President Cynthia Elliott at Tuesday’s school board meeting regarding the possibility of reinstating those teachers.

“We have to do what we have to do in terms of right-sizing the district. So if there are retirements where they decide not to retire, that will determine who we have to bring back. So that helps us in identifying who really is going to be downsized,” Elliott said.

The district last year was boosting efforts to recruit and retain teachers. Some of the positions they were looking to fill were special education and bilingual teacher vacancies. So why lay off teachers now? Elliott says it’s about fiscal responsibility.

The 2024-2025 school budget was approved by the district for just over $1 billion.

“80% of our budget is personnel costs and if we are going to be fiscally responsible for the future — we’ve got to reduce those costs because that is the greatest cost in our budget,” Elliott said.

There may be some vacancies, with the need for teachers depending on the area. “There’s a need for bilingual teachers and it’s difficult to find,” Elliott said. “If the classroom sizes are small and they don’t have the particular qualifications, we have to look to downsizing.”

Elliott says the board will be voting on either reinstating the 30 teachers or laying them off, but she wouldn’t say when that will happen. As for the upcoming school year, she says at this point she doesn’t anticipate there will be staffing shortages.

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