Budget Crunch Forces Layoffs In Sharon Springs CSD

SHARON SPRINGS — Sharon Springs School Board members had the very unpleasant task of approving the layoffs of three teachers and one psychologist at their Monday, March 24 meeting.

The board voted unanimously at the end of the meeting to approve the agenda item marked "resolution to abolish 2025-2026 positions." The positions were two full-time equivalent elementary education tenure positions, one 0.5 FTE K-12 art tenure position and one 0.5 FTE school psychologist tenure position.

The action was done without comment during the meeting, but after the meeting Superintendent Thomas Yorke explained that the layoffs were necessary to help close a 2025-26 budget deficit that had stood at $500,000. The layoffs and other cost-saving measures will bring that deficit down to around $25,000 to $50,000, he added.

The necessity of the layoffs sure didn't make them any easier, Yorke emphasized in a conversation with this newspaper after the meeting.

"Extremely hard on a number of levels," he said. "These are peoples' lives and livelihoods and passions. These are people that I care about.

"I remember my grandfather talking about living through the Great Depression and my father talking about how hard it was being laid off at General Electric in 1987. There are Great Depressions and periods of Depression, but I think every time someone loses a job, it's a depression."

Yorke said these are the first layoffs in his three years as superintendent but the district has experienced them in the past, including some "deep ones" in 2008 when he was an English teacher at the school. One of the big reasons for the tight budget and need for layoffs is stagnant foundational state aid, he added.

In other personnel moves, the board approved tenure for Elementary Education teacher Rebecca Sniffin and Secondary Social Studies teacher Dennis Strk.

After some remarks by Senior Class President Isabella Perrotti and Class Advisor Chris Smith, the board granted their requests for the Senior Class trip later this year. It will actually be two trips on two straight days without any overnight stays this year.

The class will travel to Springfield, Massachusetts on June 17 to visit the Basketball Hall of Fame and then stay in the general area to take in Six Flags New England. Dinner at Crossgates Mall is on the itinerary later that day. The next day, the 10-member Class of 2025 will travel to Syracuse to visit the Spirit Mall and then enjoy other activities that day as well.

Yorke said this is the smallest senior class he can remember at Sharon Springs CSD and that it has had its share of fundraising and other challenges because of starting their high school years in the wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic and other factors.

The board also approved the school calendar, board meetings calendar and all the other various calendars for 2025-26. The first day of classes for students is Sept. 4 after two days of staff development Sept. 2-3.