Part-time help hard to find
May 16th, 2008 by Paul Leighton
One of Mayor Scanlon’s suggestions for saving money is for the schools to fill positions as they open with employees who work 19 1/2 hours per week or less. Those employees are not entitled to health insurance and pension benefits. In his speech on Wednesday night, Scanlon said there’s potential to fill 200 or more positions in the schools with people working under 20 hours.
I asked Superintendent Hayes yesterday what he thought of that idea. “I think it’s a good idea and we try to do that when we can,” he said.
The problem, Hayes said, is that it’s hard to find people willing to work those reduced hours, and without benefits. He said the schools have been able to find only two people willing to work as teacher aides in a 19 1/2-hour position.
Hayes also said you can’t really hire bus drivers at 19 1/2 hours because they work at least four hours per day, which adds up to 20 per week. Scanlon provided some startling figures on what is costs the city to pay for employees’ health coverage and pensions — about $12 million a year for health insurance and $6 million a year for pensions.
