CSD2 reduces 2010/11 force

At its meeting on May 3, the Clarendon School District 2 Board of Trustees voted to accept Superintendent John Tindal’s recommendation that the District eliminate a total of eight elementary teaching positions at Manning Elementary School, Manning Primary School and Manning Early Childhood Center, according to a press release issued by CSD2 Board Chair Ceth Land.

“The District regrets that this position elimination likely will mean that eight elementary and early childhood teachers will not be offered employment in the District for the 2010-2011 school year,” Land said. “This action was necessary in order for the District to absorb the budget cuts that it has already received, as well as the additional cuts that are anticipated for the 2010-2011 school year.”

In addition to the elimination of these eight positions, the District is not filling a number of administrative, teaching and support staff positions that will be left vacant as the result of attrition and the Board’s action last week not to offer employment in the District for the 2010-2011 school year to working retirees.

“These personnel cuts mean that Clarendon School District 2 will likely employ a total of 336 people for the 2010-2011 school year as compared to the 372 employees who currently work in the District,” Land added.

In determining which elementary and early childhood teachers will not be offered employment for the coming school year because of this position elimination, the District implemented its “Reduction-in-Force Policy.”

This policy sets forth the criteria that the District is to use in making such determinations.

The process has been easy for no one, the least of which is Superintendent John Tindal.

“In prior years, I was mostly looking at unemployment statistics,” he said. “Now I am having to look these teachers and support personnel, many of whom I consider personal friends, in the face.”

Tindal said Monday that there would be eight teachers who would not be offered contracts for the coming year and 32 teachers and staff who have been “working retirees” who would not be offered continuing employment.

“All of our teachers and staff have been doing an exemplary job and these actions have nothing to do with job performance,” he added. “We have worked very hard to make sure that all our programs are covered, even if it means stretching our remaining staff very thin. We have all endeavored to handle this in a fair, equitable and compassionate manner. It has not been pleasant at all.”

As provided by State law, those teachers who are not offered employment for 2010-2011 will have priority to be rehired if the District’s financial situation improves and the eliminated positions are reinstated at some point during the next two years.

Affected employees also will be eligible for unemployment benefits and for reduced premiums if they elect to maintain health insurance coverage through the District until they find new employment.

At its May 3 meeting, the Board also voted to accept the Superintendent’s personnel recommendations for the 2010-2011 school year. Those recommendations include a number of changes in administration at four of the District’s five schools. These changes will be announced after all affected personnel have been properly notified, Land added.