Federal Hocking Local School District cut 12 teaching positions last night to reduce its mounting debt, which totals about $800,000 and is expected to grow to about $1.8 million next fiscal year, said treasurer Bruce Steenrod.
The cuts affect 11.3 percent of the district's 106 full-time teachers and might save the district anywhere from $360,000 to $410,000, Steenrod said.
School administrators, including superintendent James Patsey, decided which positions should be cut and the board decided the total number, board member John Young said.
The high school will lose two teaching positions, the middle school will lose four, and Amesville and Coolville elementary schools will lose six, effective in the fall. In addition to the teachers, the board also eliminated two cooks, a bus driver and three other non-teaching positions.
However, the district did add a half-time librarian and half-time physical education position.
We could make a case to keep every position
Patsey said, but ultimately the district had to choose some to eliminate.
Academics may be the brain of the school body and athletics the muscles but art and music are the heart. These classes are what students become passionate about said high school English teacher Kizzi Elmore-Clark, who was disappointed at the choice of positions that were cut.
The board consulted teachers and administration before making the cuts and does not take them lightly, Young said.
We wanted to make as big of a dent in the debt as possible without ruining the school system. You can't run a Cadillac on a Volkswagen budget though
Young said.
The district's new average student-to-teacher ratio, 13.8 students per teacher, is still less than or similar to other area school districts, such as Nelsonville-York (15.4 students per teacher) or Athens City (12.9 students per teacher), according to the Ohio Department of Education.
The board has the option of revisiting the decision to cut the positions until 60 days before the end of the school year, board president Dan Dailey said.
Federal Hocking loses the most open enrollment students to Athens schools because many parents are not aware of its academic excellence and fear debt problems, said Tom McGuire, former school board president and representative for Ohio Fair Schools Campaign.
We have a fiscal problem
not an academic crisis
McGuire said.
Students graduating from the district receive about $400,000 in scholarships each year, said guidance counselor Jane Eddy.
However, the district received a rating of continuous improvement ' the lowest rating a school district can receive and still meet adequate yearly progress, which indicates student proficiency in math and reading ' on the 2006 report card from ODE.
Neilla Gothman, the mother of a fourth-grader at Amesville Elementary School, said she thinks the board tends to spend too much time and effort on less important topics while not addressing or working with parent groups to raise revenue.
The board should represent the views of the district, and it should not feel like us and them
Gothman said.
State auditors will determine today whether the school district will be placed into fiscal emergency and receive more money from the state, Steenrod said.
17
Archives
Jessie Balmert
