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South Range schools to consider staff cuts, valedictorian and schedule changes tonight
By ROBERT CONNELLY
NORTH LIMA
The South Range Board of Education will take action tonight on possible teacher cuts and changing the school calendar and valedictorian system.
The meeting starts at 7 in the high school, 11300 S. Columbiana-Canfield Road.
The reduction in force would be for two full-time teachers and another teacher who leads a few classes a day, said South Range Superintendent Dennis Dunham. He also said those cuts would go into effect if a school levy attempt fails in May.
“Suspending [those] contracts is due to financial reasons,” Dunham said. “There are programs affiliated with those positions. There will be ramifications down the road once those are acted upon.”
The transportation/activity fee will continue unless the May levy is approved. That is $100 per student per school year for all athletics and a maximum of $175 per family. The cost goes down for co-curricular and extracurricular activities, with that maximum at $100 per family for multiple participation in those activities, such as $70 per student for the speech team.
This is just the first phase of what would be future reductions to deal with approaching deficits, but a three-year, 4.9-mill operating levy would alleviate those projected deficits, district Treasurer Jim Phillips said. It would generate $931,838 over three years and cost the owner of a $100,000 home $171.50 a year.
“If the levy doesn’t pass, then obviously, financially, we have to continue, we have to make cuts that will get us where we need to be in fiscal year 2017 because that’s the year we show the deficit,” Dunham said. Fiscal year 2017 would be for the 2016-17 school year.
“The cuts that we’ve been making, by not replacing retirees or by out and out laying people off, is how we’ve been financing the district for the past three to five years, if not longer,” Phillips said. “What happens when you run out of things to cut and you still haven’t passed a levy?
“Everything we’ve cut has hurt, and now we’re still faced with cutting more.”
The tax levy for South Range is the only school issue in Mahoning County on the May 5 primary ballot.
SCHEDULE CHANGE
The board also will consider three versions of a new school calendar for the next school year. Two of the three proposals have school opening in late August, before the Canfield Fair begins. But there would be no scheduled class days during the fair except for possibly the first day of fair week.
“We have many school districts in neighboring counties that start school as early as Aug. 17. ... Potentially, those students would have 16 [days], or three weeks of instruction, before our kids would walk in the building,” Dunham explained. “That’s what’s really driving the academic calendar change.”
School districts in Mahoning County have looked at changing academic calendars due to new testing standards and wanting to get more instruction time before tests begin in February.
VALEDICTORIAN
The board also will act on changing the school’s valedictorian and salutatorian qualifications.
“Our current [system] is just based on GPA [grade-point average]. It’s not based on rigor,” he said.
The change is “absolutely apples to apples,” on students taking the same classes, he explained. “Not to take anything away from our previous valedictorians or salutatorians ..., but this does create more of an equalized approach for kids.”