Hattiesburg school district planning layoffs

HATTIESBURG, Miss - The Hattiesburg Public School District (HPSD) workers have been notified regarding pay cuts and layoffs.

The district's board of trustees approved three cost-cutting measures, most of the jobs are being cut in areas that would least affect academics.

Director of Communications for HPSD Jas N Smith says, "We have about 12 employees who were let go, and notified a number of at-will employess of their five percent pay cut, and we suspended the administrative pay scale."

Smith mentions the idea behind the layoffs and pay cuts is to try and cut their expenses as much as possible between now and the end of the school year.

The layoffs and pay cuts are a product of the current financial fiscal situation at HPSD.

HPSD had a larger deficit than expected at the end of last year, which was recently revealed in this year's audit report.