As the new school year fast approaches, several local school districts are getting ready this year with fewer teachers and staff. But, said area superintendents, because the reductions reflect a drop in enrollment, they don’t anticipate any problems as students return to the classrooms.
“Because the decisions for reductions were mostly enrollment driven, we have been able to create schedules for students and still meet the appropriate needs and class sizes for exceptional instruction and broad programming opportunities,” said Palmyra-Macedon Superintendent Robert Ike. “The nature of the times simply drives us to do more with less.”
Palmyra-Macedon eliminated 11 full-time positions and two part-time positions through layoffs. The reason behind the staff reductions, said Ike, was mainly a drop in enrollment.
Lyons, too, laid off about a dozen teachers and staff this year, said Superintendent Rick Amundson. The reason is partially funding, but also because there are fewer students in the classrooms.
The district has consistently lost students the past few years, said Amundson. There are 860 students enrolled this year — about 200 less than six years ago. Lyons has been reducing staff the past three years when there have been retirements.
But this year is different, said Amundson.
“This is the first year people were actually laid off,” he said. “It’s very difficult on school districts to lay people off.”
He doesn’t anticipate any issues with the new school year.
“It actually hasn’t posed a problem for us because of the declining enrollment,” he said. “Class sizes are still at a very acceptable range.”
Marion Superintendent Kathryn Wegman said that the school district did not make any layoffs this year, but the district chose not to bring back several part-time staff positions and positions left vacant by retirement or resignation. She also said the reason was a change in enrollment.
“Our ratio of students to staff is the same,” she said.
One challenge that will have to be addressed, said Ike, involves the announcement last month by the state Board of Regents that the scoring has been changed for the 2010 English language arts and math tests — which were already taken. The new standards, while more closely aligned with the comparative level of competence for high school Regents exams and the demands of college, according to the Board of Regents, have reduced the number of proficient students. Schools must typically give more assistance to students who score a 2 or lower.
“With the changes in the state assessment, the Board (of Education) and I will need to review our levels of staffing to provide academic intervention services and other levels of support to address the test results and ensure that our students are proficient,” said Ike.
