Creston Community Schools to reduce staff

Creston Community Schools Board of Directors approved a recommendation during their regular meeting Monday to continue with a proposed staff reduction timeline for the 2017-18 school year.

During the 2016-17 school year, more than $350,000 in staff was reduced, and the continuation of the plan will reduce staff by nearly $300,000.

Board members unanimously approved the reduction proposed by Superintendent Steve McDermott.

“Our enrollment has declined somewhat, and therefore our state aid is not the same. So, we’re in a position where we need to downsize,” McDermott said. “When you do reductions like that, you need to do them very carefully and do the best you can to make reductions that make as little impact as possible on kids and their learning.”

Reductions

In the 2016-17 school year, $356,600 in staff was reduced. The positions were secondary instructional coach at $79,200, elementary instructional coach at $65,700, one second-grade section at $9,000, fifth-grade early-retirement replacement at $19,000, middle-school math early-retirement replacement at $19,000, middle-school success early-retirement replacement at $5,500, fourth-grade replacement at $19,000, shared librarian at $32,000 and IT instructional coach at $68,200.

Approved reductions for the 2017-18 school year were administrator at $122,504, one second-grade section at $52,000, shared-teaching positions with Murray for elementary title reading, middle-school social studies and middle-school technology at $63,000 and two physical education shared-teaching positions with Lenox at $40,300.

“If you look over the two-year period of time, there’s $634,404 worth of reductions we’ve made in two years,” McDermott said. “It’ll take us another chunk this large, around that $300,000 mark, to reduce $1 million out of the budget over a three-year period of time.”

McDermott said the second reduction in second grade will still allow for groups of about 21 students per teacher, as the incoming second-grade class is smaller than the current one.

Also, the sharing agreements with Lenox and Murray are held by those school districts, but they are on board with the decision, according to McDermott.

“Through scheduling changes, we’ve determined that we don’t necessarily need those shared positions,” McDermott said.

Administrator

The largest reduction for the 2017-18 school year is an administrator position. The position, however, will be a forced reduction, with the duties absorbed by other administrators.

“We’re still working out how to best approach that,” McDermott said. “That’s not just an easy thing to accomplish.”

McDermott said that the director of educations services, which includes curriculum director and special education director, currently held by Kevin Teno, has the least seniority among administrative positions and will be cut.

“All the duties and responsibilities will be absorbed by the rest of the administrative team,” McDermott said. “This year, it gets a little deeper with positions and all, and we still have, I’d say, a couple more years of reductions at the same level before we’re at a position where we want to be.”

The process is ongoing, and while this round of cuts was approved, there may be others in the future to go in front of the board for review as well.

“It can be complicated. But, you know, it’s like a normal household. We do the best we can within our means,” McDermott said. “So, while we feel that we have strong needs that need to be served, we can only afford so many positions.”