The Palm Beach County School district recently laid off all its media clerks, who assisted in the day-to-day operations of school libraries.
The position of media clerk was scrapped, leading to 76 jobs being eliminated, to save the district more than $3.3 million in the face of a budget deficit driven largely by loss in state funding.
Teachers in the district got a raise of 3.5% earlier this year after a tense negotiation process between the district and teachers' union group. When the School Board voted to give the raise, the superintendent warned stretching the budget could lead to layoffs.
READ MORE: Palm Beach County teachers get raises after months of negotiations limbo
More than half of those employees have been hired for other roles in the district, while others retired and about a dozen are being assisted by the district to find a new role.
The media specialist positions, 169 across the district, were not eliminated, according to a district spokesperson.
Correction: An earlier version of this story mislabeled the eliminated positions. We regret the error and have since updated the story.
This is a News In Brief report. Visit WLRN News for in-depth reporting from South Florida and Florida news.
