A second Gary charter school reduced its staffing this week in the wake of fall enrollment that fell lower than projections and cuts in federal funding.
The Thea Bowman Leadership Academy eliminated seven positions at the elementary school, including five teacher aides who lost their jobs. The school's librarian and another staffer with a teaching license moved back into the classroom, said Sarita Stevens, high school principal.
At the high school, Stevens said five positions were eliminated, including one seventh-grade teacher's job.
"The reductions are based on the fact that everybody's competing for students," said Stevens. "We maintained our current numbers, but based on how we were staffed, we needed 75 to 100 more students."
Gary has six charter schools. In 2013, Bowman had 1,465 students — the most of of all the charters. That same year, Gary ranked No. 5 in the country with 35 percent of its students enrolled in public charter schools, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Data is incomplete, but the overall number of Gary children in traditional and charter schools appears to be shrinking.
Stevens said there are 605 high school students and 673 at the elementary school.
She said the charter school lost $700,000 in federal Title 1 and Title II funding. "That's a steep cut to deal with it at the beginning of the year," she said
Many of those affected were support staff paid for with the federal funding, she said.
"We tried to transition anyone with a teaching credential back into classrooms," Stevens said. Some had been working at intervention specialists with students who needed remediation. "Our librarian migrated to a sixth-grade class."
Last week, the 21st Century Charter School in Gary laid off an administrator, two teachers and five classroom assistants because enrollment didn't match its projection. A school official said the layoffs saved the school $500,000.