Palm Beach County School District officials have warned that layoffs are coming in the wake of continued enrollment decline, a related loss in state revenue and the pay raise school members approved for teachers in early May.
Teachers have reacted strongly to the news in social media posts, saying they deserve the raise they received and arguing that the district’s strained finances are not their fault.
Here is some of what’s known — and unknown — about the layoffs and the district’s financial picure:
Who’s getting laid off?
District officials have not said who will be laid off, nor have they said how many people will be laid off.
But they made clear during pay negotiations with the Palm Beach County Classroom Teachers Association that a raise package bigger than the one they were recommending — a raise of 1.5% and a one-time bonus of 1.5% — would lead to staff reductions.
After protracted negotiations between the teachers union and the district, school board members accepted an arbiter’s recommendation of a raise of 3.5%.
The Palm Beach Post and other media outlets followed up to learn if the district would, in fact, have to lay off personnel in the aftermath of the raise, and the answer from a district spokesman was:
“The School District of Palm Beach County is currently working to identify areas for reduction to balance the budget. Given the planned budget reductions, the school district does anticipate position eliminations and subsequent layoffs.”
When are the layoffs coming?
Again, an unknown, as district officials have not said. That silence on the layoffs might not last long.
“Impacted employees are being notified over the coming weeks,” the district spokesman said. “The total number and types of positions are still being determined as department and school budgets are reduced. Position reductions are expected to continue through October 2026 as budgets are aligned to enrollment.”
Is this all because of the raise for teachers?
The short answer is: no.
District officials were stunned at the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year when an August count showed an enrollment decline of 6,000 students from the year before. The expected drop was around 400.
An October count showed enrollment still dropping, with a year-over-year decline of about 7,900 charter and non-charter school students.
The decline spelled big financial trouble for the district because its state funding is tied in part to enrollment. Fewer students means fewer state dollars.
District officials had to work around a $66 million loss in state funding.
What role did the raises play?
District officials from Superintendent Mike Burke on down said — repeatedly — that a bigger raise package than they were recommending would lead to job losses.
“I have heard comments suggesting that the district is bluffing about potential layoffs, and what people need to understand is that we have already reduced staffing levels by over 750 positions to help address that loss of $66 million,” Burke told school board members during a negotiations impasse hearing on May 6. “We are already leveraging vacancies and natural attrition to mitigate the impact.”
The state provided enough money to raise teacher pay by 0.6%, but the district went beyond that in offering a raise of 1.5% and a one-time bonus of 1.5%.
Those numbers don’t match the annual rate of inflation, which was 3.8% for the 12-month period ending in April, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Teachers cited rising costs and the sky-high cost of living in Palm Beach County in arguing for a bigger raise.
What’s next?
District officials are working on the fiscal year 2027 budget, which like all district budgets, must by state law be balanced.
Budget writers will have to account for the cost of the 3.5% raise. Burke has said it costs $10 million to give district teachers a 1% raise, and, based on that calculation, a 3.5% raise would cost $35 million.
That’s not a lot of money in a district budget of $5.9 billion. Much of the money the district gets, however, must, by law, be used for specific purposes. The district can’t, for example, use capital projects money for salaries.
District Chief Financial Officer Heather Frederick gave a pair of budget presentations in late May and did not discuss layoffs. She did note the previous staffing reductions Burke referenced, and she emphasized that enrollment declines are expected to continue into this fall.
Once the numbers from this fall are known, Frederick said the district expects enrollment to be down by more than 10,000 students over the past two school years.
“That’s the largest reduction in enrollment that we’ve had historically in Palm Beach County,” she said.
Wayne Washington is a journalist covering education and Riviera Beach development for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at wwashington@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach County schools chief says layoffs ahead but details unclear
Reporting by Wayne Washington, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
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