The Hoquiam School District will furlough 58 non-supervisory classified employees, and modify the hours of 13 more, as it enters an online only learning model this fall.

“It is with a heavy heart that I’m recommending the district furlough some talented classified employees in response to starting the 2020-2021 school year remotely,” said Superintendent Mike Villarreal in a memo to the school board dated Aug. 20.

“We anticipate when COVID-19 infection rates decrease and the district receives the ‘green light to return’ to a hybrid (model of instruction, with students returning to school buildings for in-person learning) we will look to re-employ our classified staff,” read Villarreal’s memo, calling classified staff the “the heart and soul of the district.”

“When I say they are the heart and soul of the district, our classified staff really are,” Villarreal told the school board Thursday. “At every level — not just the classroom but at every level — whether starting a bus, being a custodian, cooking, maintenance crew, office staff, they are the glue that keeps things together.”

Villarreal said he was in meetings for weeks with the classified staff union “trying to see what our best plan would be moving forward into this undetermined time, because we don’t know how long this is going to go.” He said those meetings resulted in the plan under consideration by the board Thursday, based on the union’s recommendations.

The resolution approved by a somber school board Thursday read, “The educational program for the 2020-2021 school year will be reduced by the following or portion thereof positions: 71 Non-Supervisory Classified Employees.” Villarreal said the said the actual numbers are 58 furloughs, with 13 more employees impacted by having their hours of work cut. Through the work of the district and the union, 49 classified staff will be coming back for the 2020-2021 school year.

“We anticipate we will be coming back, phasing in, and at that time we will be looking at positions again and what is the best way to bring people back in,” said Villarreal, with regard to union requirements regarding seniority, hours and work.

“The whole process causes stress and anxiety and we acknowledge that, we are not taking this lightly,” said Villarreal. “As we can move and things change and we are able to do it safely that will be our number one priority for the district. It’s not only good for them, but for the district and their morale.”