OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Omaha Public Schools needs to come up with $10 million worth of savings before they finalize their budget in September.
The reason for the cuts is due to a troubled pension plan that was severely mismanaged during the recession last decade.
OPS is looking at cutting or diminishing contracted services, as well as 15 to 20 positions in the central office, as well as chopping down redundancies and evaluating the teacher to student ratio in the classroom, Board member Ben Perlman says that doesn’t necessarily mean class sizes are getting bigger.
“Some classrooms have too many students have too few students. I think that’s always something administrators and school board wants to make sure that each classroom is fit. But perfection is always the goal but there’s always adjustments that need to be made," says Perlman.
Perlman also says the goal for all these changes is not affect students inside the classroom in a negative way.
It’s unclear what contracted services will be on the chopping block and what redundancies are specifically going to be going away.
When asked, district spokesperson Monique Farmer says she’ll try to get answers to those questions and Superintendent Cheryl Logan declined to speak after the meeting.
