The first of more than 70 public school nurses and staff employed by the Washington County Health Department will see their contracts come to an end Saturday.
In early June, the health department announced the positions were being eliminated after the Washington County Board of Commissioners agreed to cut $3.3 million in funding used to pay school health services workers’ salaries and benefits.
The layoffs include two categories of employees, merit staff and special pay workers, health department spokesman Rod MacRae said.
There are 10 special pay employees who are not in the county summer school program and are under contracts that expire today, the end of the fiscal year, MacRae said.
Merit staff are considered state employees who receive full salary and benefits, MacRae said. Their work rules require that they be given 60 days’ notice before being laid off, he said.
The total number of workers among both merit and special pay staff affected by the layoffs is 72, MacRae said.
That number was originally reported as 76, but MacRae said some staff members might have been shifted to other positions.
The department has 46 merit staffers and 25 contractual workers, MacRae said earlier in the week.
The clock on the 60-day notice began running when the merit staff received their notices, which would have been over a roughly three-day period beginning on June 7, MacRae said Friday.
Washington County Public Schools Superintendent Clayton Wilcox recently said he met with county Health Officer Earl Stoner and reached an agreement in principle for the health department to continue providing health services for summer school, according to a story in The Herald-Mail.
A decision on who will provide school health services in the upcoming school year has not been made, the story said.
In early June, the health department announced the positions were being eliminated after the Washington County Board of Commissioners agreed to cut $3.3 million in funding used to pay school health services workers’ salaries and benefits.
The layoffs include two categories of employees, merit staff and special pay workers, health department spokesman Rod MacRae said.
There are 10 special pay employees who are not in the county summer school program and are under contracts that expire today, the end of the fiscal year, MacRae said.
Merit staff are considered state employees who receive full salary and benefits, MacRae said. Their work rules require that they be given 60 days’ notice before being laid off, he said.
The total number of workers among both merit and special pay staff affected by the layoffs is 72, MacRae said.
That number was originally reported as 76, but MacRae said some staff members might have been shifted to other positions.
The department has 46 merit staffers and 25 contractual workers, MacRae said earlier in the week.
The clock on the 60-day notice began running when the merit staff received their notices, which would have been over a roughly three-day period beginning on June 7, MacRae said Friday.
Washington County Public Schools Superintendent Clayton Wilcox recently said he met with county Health Officer Earl Stoner and reached an agreement in principle for the health department to continue providing health services for summer school, according to a story in The Herald-Mail.
A decision on who will provide school health services in the upcoming school year has not been made, the story said.
