A Department of Defense Education Activity teacher looks around her classroom at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, Jan. 12, 2024. DODEA unveiled a reorganization plan Friday that includes the hiring of additional administrative officers and psychologists and elimination of other positions. (Peter Rawlins/U.S. Marine Corps)

About a week after notifying employees of potentially widespread job cuts, the Pentagon’s school system announced a reorganization that it says will boost support for students.

The shift, to take effect at the start of the next academic year, includes new school-level administrative roles to assist principals and an expansion of mental health services, the Department of Defense Education Activity said in a statement Friday.

The changes support an initiative announced in March by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as part of a larger plan to rebuild the U.S. military to meet current and future demands.

“This strategic realignment is designed to better serve military-connected students and families through smarter resource allocation, strengthened leadership and professional development, and enhanced support at every level of the school system,” DODEA said in its statement.

Administrative officers will be added to nearly every school to “streamline operations and free principals to focus on instructional leadership,” DODEA said.

Mental health support also will be expanded, with the aim of lowering the student-to-psychologist ratio from 1:900 to 1:700, the agency said. The goal is to hire about 21 more psychologists across the agency, DODEA spokeswoman Jessica Tackaberry said Friday.

The reorganization involves elimination of potentially hundreds of school-level and above-school-level positions, with teachers being spared.

Duties being phased out or reshaped include school education technologist, assessor for special education and speech/language pathologist, and office automation assistant and clerk, as well as numerous above-school level positions, Tackaberry said.

She added that the exact number of eliminated positions is still being finalized amid efforts to reassign those affected into roles that match their skills, experience and certifications. Classroom teacher positions remain unaffected, she said.

The job cuts are part of the Defense Department’s deferred resignation program and early retirement initiative, launched in March to trim the civilian workforce, according to an email sent to DODEA employees on May 22. The message was forwarded to Stars and Stripes by a DODEA employee in Japan, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

The email said affected school-level employees would receive a second message that day. It also said they would be offered early retirement, retirement with incentive pay or possible reassignment based on certification.

That second email, also shared with Stars and Stripes, included instructions for applying for early retirement, with a Monday deadline.

It also stated that the agency is “working to identify job opportunities for affected employees,” but that this “does not guarantee that you will not be involuntarily separated from your position.”

The employee said by phone Friday that five staffers at their school had received the messages: three office automation assistants, a special education assessor and an educational technologist.

Office automation assistants serve as the “face of the school,” interacting with parents, checking in students and supporting school administration. Most DODEA schools have at least two, the employee said.

The school secretary — responsible for onboarding staff, handling leave requests and other personnel tasks — will be expected to take over those additional duties, the employee added.

School-level employees who receive the messages must separate by July 24, while above-school-level and headquarters staff have until Sept. 30, according to another email that was obtained from a DODEA employee in Europe and shared with Stars and Stripes.

Above-school roles make up 12% of DODEA’s workforce but absorbed one-third of the cuts at the district, regional and headquarters levels, the agency said.

Nearly every headquarters department was affected, Tackaberry added, including logistics, procurement, Equal Employment Opportunity programs, curriculum and instruction, professional learning, general counsel, security management and facilities.

All 161 DODEA schools have an educational technologist who handles Wi-Fi issues, classroom tech problems and password resets, among other tasks.

Those school-based duties will transition to district-level instructional systems specialists to provide “consistent, expert support in digital learning,” DODEA said.

The agency said it will attempt to reassign employees and rely on voluntary separation programs to minimize involuntary terminations.

“This is not change for the sake of change,” DODEA Director Beth Schiavino-Narvaez said in a statement. “It’s targeted, strategic and rooted in our mission to support military-connected students.”