DALLAS - New numbers have been released on the Dallas Independent School District buyout.
Just over 700 district employees took the resignation deal that paid out $10,000. It was an effort to avoid layoffs.
Now, News 8 has learned many of those who quit held some of the hardest positions to fill, including bilingual, math and science teachers and even principals.
Some of the positions the district paid thousands of dollars to empty will likely have to be filled again. That troubles watchdog Kyle Renard.
"I really was surprised at the number of principals," he said.
In fact, 18 Dallas schools will lose their leader next year, along with 51 special education teachers and 41 math teachers who called it quits. DISD is also losing nearly 50 science teachers.
"With math and science, they're hard to fill," Renard said. "And it's not like you can ask a social studies teacher to suddenly jump over and teach physics, they're not going to be able to do that."
Nearly 40 percent of the teachers that left had been teaching for more than 30 years. That's something, the district officials admit, they're not thrilled about.
But, in the end, administrators point out that they spent $6 million to save $45 million in salaries.
"By getting people to leave voluntarily that's fewer people we have to ask involuntarily to leave," said Lew Blackburn, a DISD trustee.
This week, the board considered expanding the buyout to employees like custodians or cafeteria workers. They even toyed with the idea of offering a second round to teachers.
"The district has said over and over again we want to keep our best teachers, but unfortunately we may have lost some of our best with this," Renard said.
