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Class sizes will grow under new recovery move. Pay-to-participate fees dropped
By John Higgins
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Monday, May 12, 2008
Springfield schools — still in fiscal emergency and under state oversight — will lay off about 19 teachers in response to decreasing enrollment.
''We're looking at increasing class sizes without reducing programming,'' Superintendent William Stauffer said. ''There was certainly some overstaffing in this district.''
The cuts will save an estimated $1.4 million a year.
The district's recovery plan, adopted last month by the school board, has some good news in it, too, especially for parents driving their kids to school while gas prices climb.
By rerouting some buses from Spring Hill Junior High to the high school and expanding the school day at Spring Hill, the district expects to transport an additional 200 students to the high school without adding buses or drivers.
The school also will eliminate pay-to-participate fees, which at the high school are $300 per sport and $150 for marching band. Junior high students pay $150 per sport. Those fees had been generating $70,000 to $90,000 a year.
Stauffer sent a letter to parents outlining the recovery plan.
''I hope you will once again entrust the education of your children with the Springfield Local Schools,'' Stauffer wrote.
The 19 teachers on the layoff list do not include the three or four teachers who announced retirements before the list was compiled, Curriculum Director Ann Phillips said. If other teachers resign or retire, those on the layoff list will be called back.
Phillips said the teacher cuts will mean larger classes — an average of 25 students per class, with more students in the higher grades and fewer in the lower ones.
Class sizes will not violate state requirements or union contracts, she said.
Both the district and the state are continuing to study whether some areas that appear overstaffed in comparison with similar districts are justified in having more teachers because of greater student needs, Phillips said.
This school year, for the first time, Springfield lost more students (and the state aid that goes with them) to other districts through open enrollment than it gained.
Since November 2006, when the district cut busing to the state minimums, the number of incoming students from other districts has declined by 20 percent, according to a Beacon Journal analysis of state enrollment figures.
During that same period, the number of students leaving Springfield through open enrollment increased by 23 percent.
Stauffer said the district tends to lose students who are advancing from one school level to the next.
Because their children are changing buildings anyway, parents figure that's the best time to enroll them outside the district, he said.
Springfield still is rated an effective school on the state's report card (the equivalent of a B).
But busing cuts, participation fees and the district's dire financial outlook all might have contributed to the exodus, he said.
What happened?
In March 2007, because of looming deficits, the state placed Springfield under the control of Ohio's Financial Planning and Supervision Commission.
Then in August, Springfield voters turned down a 9.48-mill, five-year levy — the fifth levy defeat in two years.
In November, Ohio Auditor Mary Taylor recommended cutting 22 teachers and other cost-saving measures.
As of last month, Springfield had about 2,560 students.
The drop in enrollment of 370 students since February 2006 has added to the district's financial difficulties, Stauffer said.
''It's made about a half-million-dollars difference in the budget,'' Stauffer said.
Providing bus rides for 200 high school students, mostly ninth- and 10th-graders, should help win some of those students back.
In November 2006, the district eliminated all high school buses and limited other busing to students who lived outside a two-mile radius of their school. The changes cut regular routes from 29 to 13.
The school is making those remaining routes more efficient.
''We're not adding,'' Business Manager Dan Laskos said. ''We're just trying to alleviate some of the traffic congestion at the high school.''
School officials also are easing up on the two-mile limit, which already had been relaxed somewhat to keep buses from coming back almost empty.
''As long as there's room on the buses, there could be some points that are a mile from the school,'' Laskos said.
Stauffer hopes these and other changes — like lengthening the school day, adding a technology class at Spring Hill Junior High and hiring playground monitors so that Schrop Elementary pupils can have recess — will stem the tide of outgoing students.
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John Higgins can be reached at 330-996-3792 or jhiggins@thebeaconjournal.com.
Springfield schools — still in fiscal emergency and under state oversight — will lay off about 19 teachers in response to decreasing enrollment.
Get the full article here.
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