Butler Peterson has spent the past five years visiting families of truant Richmond Public Schools students to improve their attendance.

That’s just one of the jobs he has held in his 18 years with RPS and why he hoped to be considered for one of the school-based attendance liaison positions that is to replace his role as an attendance officer.

But RPS only wants people with college degrees to fill the seven higher-paid liaison positions that are being created after Mr. Peterson is laid off with 16 other attendance officers who work out of the RPS central office.

“None of us were considered because we don’t have degrees,” Mr. Peterson said, “just a lot of experience and rapport with these families.”

Despite winning praise for the attendance work they have done, Mr. Peterson said that he and the other attendance officers are being ushered out the door without any assistance.

While the Richmond School Board approved a 2019-20 budget last week that included $400,000 in severance pay to many of the RPS employees losing their jobs as part of a cutback in central administration, it is unclear if Mr. Peterson and the attendance officers will be included in the payout. Mr. Peterson said he has received no information that severance pay will be coming.

He said that he and the other attendance officers have been given no information about vacant RPS jobs for which they might qualify, nor have they received assistance in finding positions outside the school system.

RPS’ Human Resources office “has not met with us,” said another attendance officer, Breon Eppes. “We’re on our own.”

The 21 attendance officer positions, of which only 17 are filled, are among 74 positions that the School Board cut as part of balancing the budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year that will begin July 1.

The seven attendance liaison positions are among 25 new positions the School Board created under changes Superintendent Jason Kamras is ushering in.

The school system beefed up the attendance operation in 2014 after regaining control of the operation from the city, and hired high school graduates to fill almost all the slots.

Aided by a change in state law that makes truancy less of a priority, Mr. Kamras is ending the centralized attendance operation in favor of placing attendance liaisons at seven schools to work on reducing truancy.

Mr. Kamras has said that college-trained liaisons would be able to better focus on the root causes of the problems that create truancy.

The new liaisons will be paid more. Mr. Peterson said he was paid about $30,000 a year. The new liaisons, according to RPS, could each be paid up to $50,000 a year.