As the school year comes to close, one local school district has made the difficult decision to layoff three teachers.

The Pinckney Community Schools Board of Education voted unanimously on the decision at their specially added meeting Thursday night. Superintendent Rick Todd said he and the Board deeply regret this part of their job. Todd said that Pinckney Community Schools graduated over 300 students this year and is not bringing in that many for next. He said that reducing the number of teachers is something they usually are able to do through retirement, but unfortunately in some years like this, layoffs become necessary.

Todd said this decision was budgetary in nature as staffing is solely based on enrollment numbers. The staff needs to accurately represent appropriate numbers for the numbers of students. Trustee Paul Samways questioned the release of one of the special education teachers, but the Board was informed that the numbers of students with special needs was shifting to an age where one less teacher was required. Todd said that there will be a couple new hires for the fall because retirements can sometimes force that situation. He said, for example, they lost 3 math teachers at the high school level this year, and need to hire 2 for September. (MK)