INQUIRER: Facing an “unprecedented” fiscal crisis, the Philadelphia School District could shed 3,820 employees – 16 percent of its workforce – and is planning for more painful cuts, including losing full-day kindergarten, officials said Wednesday. At a hearing on the district’s $2.7 billion budget, Chief Financial Officer Michael Masch told the School Reform Commission (SRC) that to close a $629 million gap, the district must also make painful trims in areas ranging from gifted and alternative education to transportation and counselors. Class sizes will go up; individual school budgets will go down. A still-soft economy, flat city revenues, and sharp cuts in state aid combined with the loss of federal stimulus money have hit the district of 155,000 students hard, Masch said. MORE
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