With a new upper elementary school opening soon, North Pike School District officials are considering changes to staffing positions by removing some and adding others.
At a special meeting Monday afternoon, trustees discussed changes proposed by school administrators.
“To sum it up, everybody is giving up something at their schools to help staff the new school,” district business manager Tina Griffin said.
Superintendent Dennis Penton said the district is not filling positions held by teachers and other staff who are retiring or have left the district. None of the jobs being eliminated will come as the result of layoffs.
“We’ve had a lot of resignations this year,” he said. “When you have those resignations, it allows you to reevaluate positions.”
While the exact number of staff changes is unclear, among those the board is considering eliminating are the vacant positions of a first-grade teacher, third-grade teacher, middle school math teacher, middle school history teacher and high school history teacher.
As for administrative changes, the middle school has one principal and two assistant principals, but Penton proposed changing the second assistant principal position, which would eliminate half a position.
“At the middle school, I would recommend that we have a principal, an assistant principal and a half assistant principal and a half literacy coach,” he said, adding that one person would fulfill both roles of assistant principal and literacy coach.
Trustee Kevin Matthew asked if that would be an additional hire or if the person employed as assistant principal now is qualified to also take on the role of literacy coach.
“We would change the current literacy coach position to half administrator and half literacy coach,” Penton said, adding that the second assistant principal “is being considered for transfer to another job.”
The administration at the high school and lower elementary will remain the same, with one principal and two assistant principals.
“I think the numbers justify that and I do believe that those administrators offer a lot of support to those teachers, and their support does give us gains academically and increased supervision as well,” Penton said.
At the new elementary school, Penton told trustees that one principal and one administrator in the role of both assistant principal and counselor would be adequate.
In the future, if the budget allows the district to do so, Penton said he wants to consider hiring a full-time librarian and a part-time interventionist for the upper elementary instead of a part-time librarian and a part-time interventionist, which is the current plan.
“You can think of it is as a readjustment year because you will unconsciously incrementally grow your staff when you’re in those growth years like we’ve been for the last three or four or five years,” he said. “This is a good year for us to do that (make readjustments) because one, we have a tight budget and two, we have the vacancies to make it happen.”
But Penton said the district needs to be prepared for any changes depending on the incoming kindergarten class size and the number of people who might move into the district.
“We have to be prepared at any time during the summer if we get a big influx,” he said. “Even at registration time, we’ve had to hire teachers because we have 40 more people move in, and if they’re all in one school, then we have to hire a teacher.”
Penton told the board that he wanted to see if there are any certified candidates already working within the district who could fill the role of literacy coach and assistant principal.
“If we don’t find a good fit, then we’ll advertise outside,” he said.
