By Roger McKinney
rmckinney@joplinglobe.com
GALENA, Kan. — The Galena Board of Education on Tuesday night voted not to renew the contract of a school district librarian, in response to anticipated state budget cuts.
The librarian also is a nontenured, certified teacher. The board met behind closed doors for 15 minutes before taking the action. Kansas school districts have a May 1 deadline for notifying teachers if their contracts won’t be renewed.
The board also voted to eliminate one teaching position at the kindergarten level.
The board voted to accept the resignations of two teachers who are retiring and a bus driver.
A hiring freeze is in place in the school district as a result of the state cutbacks. Superintendent Brian Smith said those vacancies won’t be filled.
Cuts proposed by the Kansas House Appropriations Committee would result in the loss of $201,630 in state funding for the school district. The district would lose $131,976 under cuts proposed by the Senate Ways and Means Committee. Dale Dennis, deputy commissioner with the Kansas Department of Education, said Monday that the amount of the cuts probably will be somewhere between the two proposals.
Mark Desetti, legislative advocacy director for the Kansas National Education Association, said Monday that school boards around the state are facing the same decisions.
Riverton Superintendent Todd Berry said in an interview Tuesday that his district hopes to absorb the cuts through attrition, by not filling positions vacated through retirements and resignations. He said a hiring freeze is in place for all but a few essential teaching positions.
He said that if layoffs are required later, they would be in nonteaching jobs.
Berry said the district also has tried to cut back on costs for supplies, travel and energy, but those haven’t resulted in significant savings.
Baxter Springs Superintendent Dennis Burke said Monday that he has notified employees to brace for possible layoffs, but that they probably would be nonteaching jobs. The district also is considering offering an early-retirement option for teachers.
Columbus Superintendent Ken Jones said Monday that his district has instituted a hiring freeze and hopes to avoid laying off employees. It’s the same strategy being used by the Pittsburg school district, said Cory Gibson, interim assistant superintendent.
Statewide
Statewide, the House Appropriations Committee proposed cutting $105.5 million from the budget for elementary and secondary schools. The Senate Ways and Means Committee’s proposal was for $68.4 million in school cuts.
Kansas lawmakers return today from their annual spring break and will be working on setting final amounts.
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