COBB?The Middletown Unified School District Board of Trustees approved changes to its budget at its sole April meeting Wednesday night at Cobb Elementary School.
Superintendent Korby Olson said the district”s budget was in a good position to make some changes. Olson made three recommendations to the board.
The first change was to add additional agricultural science class periods at Middletown High School (MHS). This would allow one of the two agricultural science instructors to be able to teach other electives in which they”re certified.
Secondly, the district can afford to add an additional elementary teacher position. Originally, two elementary teachers received layoff notices. One was rescinded upon a submission of retirement.
The district can afford to rescind the other notice and bring back the other teacher for $15,000. This is because bringing the teacher back would help reduce class size. The state would give the district a sum of money for reducing class sizes. That state money would allow the district to pay the teacher the rest of their salary.
The third recommendation was to restore a full-time art teacher at MHS. Restoring the position from part-time to full-time would provide the district with more flexibility in scheduling classes.
Olson said he most wanted to rescind the layoff notice for the elementary school teacher. The board unanimously approved all three changes to the district budget.
During the discussion about the three recommendations, the scheduling issue at MHS was brought up again following the initial discussion about it at the last board meeting in March.
MHS Principal Bill Roderick said a committee comprised of board members Sandy Tucker and Yvette Sloan and teachers decided to keep the block schedule MHS has been using with a slight change.
The fourth 85-minute block would be split and lengthened into two 50-minute class periods. Roderick said this would give MHS greater flexibility and options for scheduling. Olson said the schedule change is just a concept right now.
During this discussion, some MHS students asked the board why the district could afford to add an elementary teacher position while there were staffing issues at MHS. At the last board meeting, many teachers told the board members about the lack of options for elective classes at MHS. Tucker explained the reasoning behind the decision was the class size reduction money the district would receive. Tucker said she hopes the scheduling changes would provide more opportunities for MHS students.
Board member Jay Albertson addressed the students” concerns at MHS.
“The elective program sucks, but we”re working on it,” Albertson said.
Additional items discussed and unanimously approved by the board included some personnel reductions in the district transportation department, two resolutions declaring May 11 as Day of the Teacher and the week of May 16 as Classified School Employee Week, and added two snow days to the semester to make up for time missed during the February snow storms that closed schools throughout the county.
The board will next meet May 11 at the Coyote Valley Elementary School multi-use room at 7 p.m.
Kevin N. Hume can be reached at kevin.n.hume@gmail.com or call directly 263-5636 ext. 14.
