SCHOOLS Board reduces staff by 21

The departures are expected to save the district several million dollars.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The board of education laid off 19 teachers and didn't renew the contracts of two others as part of a plan to reduce staff because of declining enrollment.
In taking its action Tuesday, the board met the Friday deadline imposed by state law for notification of teachers who are being laid off or whose contracts are not being renewed at the end of the school year.
Some of the laid-off teachers could be called back to work, however, if additional retirements and resignations occur between now and the start of next school year, said Germaine Bennett, executive director of human resources.
"We've not had to lay off teachers for a long time. We laid off one teacher last year," she said, noting that that teacher was laid off because of the abolition of a vocational program at Choffin Career Center. Three teachers' contracts were nonrenewed last year. Bennett said no teachers were laid off between the time she assumed her position in January 1998 and last year.
Twenty-eight other teachers had earlier taken advantage of a $1,000 bonus offer to announce their intent to retire or resign by March 31 and to actually depart at the end of the school year. Two more left because of problems related to their certifications and won't qualify for the bonus, Bennett said.
What's behind this
All of the departures combined are expected to yield savings of $4 million to $4.5 million a year for the district, said Carolyn Funk, board treasurer. The district now has about 850 teachers.
"Our class sizes are still at a nice size. It won't affect the quality of instruction," Bennett said of the teacher departures.
The enrollment declines are tied to families' leaving the Mahoning Valley, pupils transferring to charter schools (also known as community schools) and pupils leaving to attend other school districts that offer open enrollment, Funk said. Bennett and Martin Luther King elementary schools will close this year.
"We were up over 10,000, and now, we're down in the lower part of 9,000" pupils enrolled, Bennett said. As enrollment declines, state funding for the district drops, she noted.
Other action
Enrollment decline is an areawide problem for school districts, she said. "You think of Hubbard, Warren, Salem. They're all laying off teachers," she noted. The only triggers for teacher layoffs are financial woes and enrollment declines, she said.
The board also passed a resolution providing for the issuance and sale of up to $20 million in notes in anticipation of the issuance of bonds toward the local share of the $200 million, six-year schools construction and renovation project.
This is part of the $33.2 million local share of the project the voters approved in a 3.9-mill bond issue in 2000.
In addition, the board authorized Superintendent Benjamin McGee to enter into an agreement with Phi Delta Kappa Management Audit Center to perform a curriculum audit that will cost $52,000 between Oct. 11 and 22.
In the resolution, the board said it hopes the audit will help it move student academic performance toward an excellent rating.