DETROIT – Detroit Public Schools could lose as much as a third of its teaching staff over the next several years, but the staffing cuts are part of the district’s school improvement plan, not its deficit reduction plan, officials told Gongwer News Service.

The recent deficit reduction plans filed with the state call for eliminating 1,100 teachers for the 2012-13 school year and another 400 the following year. But DPS spokesperson Steve Wasko said the cuts represent teachers whose schools would be shifted to the state’s Education Achievement Authority, not layoffs.

“The vast majority of the positions that are mentioned are simply a statement of fact,” Wasko said. “There will be that many fewer positions because those schools would be in the EAA. It not the same thing that we’re making cuts.”

Wasko said the staff cuts would, instead, be a financial wash for the district.

“That part is zero sum game,” he said. “You’re removing students, but you’re also removing all the operating costs off the DPS ledger.”

And he said the numbers in the deficit plan are estimates at this point. He said the district expects about 30 schools would move to the EAA, but exactly how many and which schools will not be decided for some time.

The futures of those teachers is still somewhat in limbo, Wasko said. It is not yet clear if the EAA schools will remain under some form of the Detroit Federation of Teachers contract or if those teachers would have to create a new bargaining unit and new contract.

He said recent projections show the loss of students to the EAA will not be exacerbated by losses to other districts to the degree the district has seen in recent years. The current plan projects a loss of 6,000 students over the next four years.

Wasko said the district had been losing as many as 10,000 a year in recent years. “So we do see a gradual leveling off of that decline,” he said.

The key to the district’s deficit plan right now, he said, is the state’s permission to issue $200 million in bonds. That would reduce the deficit to $127 million out of a $1 billion budget.

“A $127 million deficit, while it’s large, is a number you can wrap your head around in relation to our budget,” he said.

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