Board members split their vote with 3 against sending out RIF notices.
The Pike County School Board voted down a proposed RIF of up to 13 teachers in a special 5pm Friday meeting yesterday. The vote was 3 to 2.
Superintendent Suzanne Blake recommended the Reduction of Force of up to 10 teachers at the elementary schools and 3 at the secondary level due to concerns about the budget, enrollment, and declining revenue.
Discussion centered around how many students in the Otwell district will and won’t attend Pike County Schools next fall. The Otwell School is closing when this school year ends in May. A group applied for a charter school but it was denied earlier this month
The superintendent was asking permission to send out RIF notices in early May to provide the earliest notification possible.
In the end, a motion by Board President to David Waltz in favor Blake’s request was seconded by Chris Satterfield. The motion was voted down by Nathan Harker, Ron Sharp and Chris McKinney. McKinney was adamant that cutting more teachers was not the answer. He said the corporation has lost just under 40 teachers in the past three years.
McKinney added that cutting teachers which results in more kids per classroom, does not line up with a recent mission statement adopted by the board stating a goal of giving students the best education possible…
Board member Nathan Harker presented some numbers on class size at the K through 3rd grade level that he said did not add up to a need to RIFF 13 positions.
There was talk of having a pre-registration in June in order to get a better handle on enrollment numbers and go from there.