Libby schools trim 10 teaching positions

LIBBY —The Libby School Board reluctantly voted Monday to cut the district’s faculty by about 10 teachers in an effort to close a projected $405,000 shortfall in the 2010-11 budget.

“There was nobody on that list that we wanted to get rid of,” said trustee Lee Disney. “It’s sad that we have to do these things.”

More cuts could be on the horizon, Libby Superintendent Kirby Maki said. The board will discuss other district employees, such as custodial, maintenance, food service, and para-professional staff, at next month’s meeting.

“Whether we make cuts or not, I don’t know yet,” Maki said, “but we have talked about that potential.”

The contracts of three full-time elementary teachers were not renewed at Monday’s meeting, and the equivalent of 1 1/2 elementary interventionist positions, which help students who struggle in reading and math, were cut.

One middle school teacher will be shifted to the elementary school and a part-time interventionist position at the middle school will be eliminated.

The position of middle school and high school nurse, held by Mike Corbett for the past 27 years, was also eliminated. The district will cut a part-time speech pathologist position, leaving one full-time position intact. The high school will lose a full-time science position and a part-time English position.

High school Spanish teacher Dennis Ashe will resign at the end of the year due to his position being converted to part-time. The high school counselor and family and consumer science teaching positions also are being reduced to part-time.

“If the world works perfectly, we’ll get a half-time Spanish, half-time counselor,” Libby High School Principal Jim Germany said at the meeting.

Shrinking enrollment has led to budget cuts over the years, but the district had been able to cope through natural attrition, Maki said, especially when it came to kindergarten through sixth-grade teachers,

whose positions are interchangeable.

“Generally, over time, we’ve had enough people retire in the right areas,” he said. “It’s not new to the district, but we’ve been a little lucky with retirees.”

The small classes now are moving up to the junior high and high schools where teachers are accredited in separate fields. Because an English teacher can’t replace a retiring math teacher, staff cuts may be accompanied by new hires. In addition, layoffs are made by department, not necessarily by tenure.

Maki said he took advice from school principals to create his recommendations for the board, and principals held staff meetings well ahead of time to warn teachers where cuts were likely to be made.

Brenda Swanson, teacher and president of the Libby Education Association, read a letter at the meeting on behalf of the group, asking for the board to accept more input from teachers when making such difficult decisions in the future.

“Currently, personally, I’m very uncomfortable,” she said after reading the letter, “and I see a need for more group discussion and collaboration.”

The board voted separately on each position.

“I’ve been on the other side of this in my lifetime and it is very difficult to make these decisions,” said retired teacher and trustee Ellen Johnston before making a motion to eliminate the first position on the list — Jennifer Badertscher. “I reluctantly move to terminate Jennifer’s contract.”

The motions passed unanimously, with exception to two measures that Disney voted against – not renewing elementary teacher Eileen Foote’s contract and laying off Corbett.

“I think this one’s a mistake,” he said about Corbett’s position. “I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the district to do it this way.”

Foote should also should have avoided the cut, Disney said, especially considering there is a possibility that another kindergarten teacher will have to be hired, depending on how many more children sign up.

Without the cuts, personnel salaries and wages were projected to rise $337,000 next year, while a three-year average loss of about 70 students will reduce the budget by about $120,000. Budget reductions are expected to continue in the coming years.

“It’s a sad thing, but we really have limited choices at this point in time,” Maki said. “The following year (2011-12), we have to set the stage so if we have even less money, we can handle that.”