Knox County Schools plans to cut $4 million in salaries from its administrative office in the coming fiscal year, Superintendent Jon Rysewyk revealed Oct. 23.
KCS continues to face budget pressures, especially after nearly $8 million was unexpectedly cut by the state and county this summer, forcing the district to scramble at the last minute to pare its annual budget to $710 million.
"The first four years (of my tenure) was about getting it right, getting it aligned, building bandwidth to do the right thing," Rysewyk told school board members at their annual workshop Oct. 23. "We now think we're in a place that we need to get lean and let the systems run.
"The whole function for our district to survive long-term has to happen in the 91 schools.
Ultimately, they're the ones that have to run."
Rysewyk said cutting administrators and support positions or moving those staffers into vacant roles is the next logical step to trimming the budget. The district employs 9,000 people and operates 91 schools. It is Tennessee's third-largest public school district.
"It's making us think different about our structure and everything we've thought about since July," he said.
In the past two years, KCS cut about $2 million each year from the district office's budget. Rysewyk said about 50 central office positions have been eliminated since 2024, and more cuts are coming.
Rysewyk said leaders have not notified central office staffers of the cuts, though the conversations will occur in the coming weeks. He said some employees will be eligible for the retirement incentive KCS is offering, and they have until Nov. 9 to express their interest.
He emphasized the cuts are a recommendation to the board based on "historic estimations of where this budget gap is going to be." Board members will be asked to approve the plan when they vote this spring on the fiscal year 2028 budget, which runs from July 1, 2027, to June 30, 2028.
Why Knox County Schools is facing budget pressure
Nearly $8 million was cut from the KCS budget over the summer by the Knox County Commission and state, which forced the school district to rethink its budget moving forward.
The county commission voted in June to provide 6% raises to county employees, opting to divert funds from the KCS budget to pay county employees. KCS employees are not county employees.
Tennessee notified KCS it was cutting nearly $4 million in state funding two weeks after the county made its cuts. In addition to more than 100 cuts the board already had approved in the spring, KCS in July eliminated more positions and reassigned employees within the district to avoid layoffs, especially among school-based staff.
The district also opted to furlough year-round employees for five days during the school year to reduce the amount it had to pay in overall salaries by $1.28 million. The group of employees who are taking furloughs includes Rysewyk, as well as custodians, executive directors, executive principals and maintenance staff.
Caitlyn Meisner is the K-12 education reporter for Knox News. Email tips and story ideas to caitlyn.meisner@knoxnews.com.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knox County Schools plans to cut $4M from its central office | Exclusive
