
By Mike DeNardo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The Philadelphia School District is taking extraordinary measures, to close a widening budget gap this year.
READ MORE: Philadelphia School District Students, Staff To Resume Masking As COVID Cases Continue To Rise In CityEven after slashing hundreds of millions in spending this year, SRC chair Pedro Ramos says the district still has to close a $61 million budget gap by the end of May. So Ramos says the district’s 500 non-union employees will have across-the-board salary reductions, forgo a scheduled three percent raise, contribute to their health care payments, and take three furlough days.
READ MORE: West Philly Double Shooting Leaves 30-Year-Old Man Dead, Teen Hospitalized: PoliceThe SRC is also hiring former PGW head Tom Knudsen as a Chief Recovery Officer to run the district for six months.
“I can’t overstate that we think that the circumstances that we’re in in the next five and a half – six months are extraordinary and these are quite exigent circumstances,” Ramos says. “A lot of urgency is required.”
MORE NEWS: Police Investigating Series Of Gunpoint Robberies In Center City, West PhiladelphiaKnudsen will be paid $150,000, with no benefits. Ramos says there will be more negotiations with unions as the district tries to close its gap. The SRC has never used its power to rewrite union contracts.