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total to 5 19 positions axed; none teachers
By MARY EVA CASSADA
Special to the News & Record
Turbeville and Wilson Memorial elementaries will be closed and 19
positions ñ†none of them teachers ñ†will be eliminated under a proposal
adopted by the Halifax County School Board at a work session Wednesday
afternoon.
The cuts will not be final until after a school-closing public hearing
on June 25 and an ensuing vote.
The sweeping new plan brings to five the number of elementary schools
closed in the county before the August start of school.
Faced with a budget about $1 million more than the $13.3 million that
the Halifax Supervisors handed them, trustees went after big-ticket
items: Chopping 10 professional positions (four central office and two each
from elementary principals, librarians and guidance counselors) plus
nine classified jobs (two clerical, two custodian, three
transportation, one paraprofessional and one maintenance) eliminated
$689,690. No teaching position was lost and, of these, all but about
six were absorbed by attrition.
Closing 90-student Turbeville and 115-student Wilson Memorial
elementaries saved $505,744.
A catch-all column saved $201,991 by cutting: summer sports camps;
alternative nighttime education; the after-school activity bus that
transports students home who stay late for extracurriculars; REACH, an
Employee Assistance Program that provides free psychological therapy to
employees; and the purchase of one fewer school buses (nine instead of
10).
Also likely not to see fruition is the Law & Leadership Academy as an
off-site satellite of the high school. That program was slated to go
into the Halifax Elementary building now that its population has been
blended into Sinai s. Instead, that building may be turned back over to
the Supervisors, who believe it may be a prime real estate offering.
Preserved in the belt-tightening was the popular preschool program,
which was in jeopardy inasmuch as it is not a mandatory service. (See
related story.)
Ironically, the trustees took about an hour and a half to do what it
spent several agonizing weeks doing back in March. Then, closing
Halifax (by folding its children into Sinai) and redrawing attendance
zones prompted an uproar, mainly those upset with the Halifax
consolidation plan. (Washington-Coleman, C.H. Friend, South of Dan and
the old Cluster Springs are closing due to new buildings.)
This new plan may be met with similar opposition based on the large
crowd at the trustees regular June meeting, where some teachers and
parents expected the budget cuts to be tackled. Instead, trustees opted
for a Wednesday noon work session (initially announced on Monday for 1
p.m.). Only one citizen came to the work session, and he arrived just
as the board went into closed-door session to discuss personnel cuts.
Schools Superintendent Paul Stapleton said the five-school shutdown,
drastic though it is, may prevent future agonizing closures, next year
and the year after that.
But the Supervisors tight budget, he said, forced the issue.
The vote yesterday was split 6-2, with Chairman D.H. McDowell and
Arthur Reynolds opposing the plan.
I can t argue the numbers, McDowell admitted later, but lamented the
long bus rides for elementary children in his district, which stretches
from Riverdale to the Pittsylvania County line. The fact that
Turbeville students will be re-directed to the brand-new, $15 million
Cluster Springs Elementary is certainly the positive side of it.
Reynolds no vote stemmed from a concern over minority students.
ìI wanted us to take a look at the two large schools that we have, see
how that works, Reynolds said, referring to both Cluster Springs and
its new twin, South Boston Elementary, both of which may eventually
hold 1,000 children.
ìI think my primary concern is with the minority kids in terms of the
ones that are being expelled Ö and I think part of that is attributable
to large schools, he said.
ìNobody likes it, Stapleton said of the plan, defending it as the
best we could do given the fiscal realities. Supervisors (who control
taxes and spending) asked the school board: How in the world can you
keep them open? referring to the smallest schools.
Moreover, closing schools allowed teaching jobs to be retained and
that, he stressed, was of prime importance: keeping low student-teacher
ratios.
ìI don t think it ll have an impact on our instruction, he said of the
cuts.
While Turbeville students will be diverted to the new Cluster Springs ñ
a move that may be a consolation prize to any disgruntled parents ñ
Wilson Memorial children s move to Meadville is still fine, he said.
Meadville is in remarkably good shape, Stapleton said.
The total proposed spending plan for local schools is $61.9 million.
The public hearing on the two school closures is during the June 25
special end-of-the-year meeting at the STEM Center at 7:30 p.m. The
STEM Center is in Halifax.