Teachers cut even as enrollment climbs

By ANDREW MCGINN
a.mcginn@beeherald.com

Greene County Superintendent Tim Christensen Wednesday evening explained the school district’s budget to the board of education, saying, “Totally driven by student enrollment.”

He then pointed out that enrollment in the Greene County Community School District this year is up 14.43 students.

Moments before, however, the board at its regular meeting approved the firing of two teachers “based on budget,” Christensen noted, “not performance.”

The Greene County Education Association was left bewildered by the district’s first reduction in force since the consolidation of Jefferson-Scranton and East Greene.

“That’s what we want to know,” Sean Thompson, president of the 80-member teachers’ union, said after Wednesday’s two-hour board meeting, when asked how teachers could be eliminated when enrollment is up.

The board voted 5-2 to terminate the contracts of middle school P.E. teacher Ryan Eberly and high school family and consumer science teacher Lisa Hansen.

Board members John McConnell and Mike Dennhardt cast no votes.

A third teacher at the elementary school was included in the cuts, but she filed Wednesday for a hearing, according to Thompson, meaning she’ll get a chance to argue her case.

Hansen teaches a third of the time, according to the district, and works as an associate the remainder. Only her teaching contract was terminated Wednesday.

“It’s just an unfortunate situation,” Thompson said.

He said the union wasn’t notified in advance of the cuts, which were carried out Friday and approved Wednesday.

Teachers had until Wednesday to file for a hearing, he said.

As a P.E. teacher himself at the intermediate school, Thompson could only wonder what the loss of the middle school P.E. teacher, for one, would mean.

“Am I going to fill in at the middle school?” he asked. “How many more teachers can we cut before we affect the value of our education?”

Talk from the February board meeting of a six-figure budget deficit was nonexistent at Wednesday’s meeting.

The district was expected to have a negative unspent balance of around $150,000 for 2015-16, a result of everything from an accounting software glitch to Gov. Terry Branstad’s high-profile veto of supplemental aid.

In a bid to save money, the district previously accepted four early retirement requests and planned to not replace other positions.

The board on Wednesday agreed only to hold its public budget hearing for 2016-17 at 5:15 p.m. April 13.

That budget is mostly set with exception to supplemental state aid, which Christensen said he expects to be 2 percent.

The other two major factors in the school budget — enrollment and taxable valuation — are both trending up.

Enrollment in the district stands at 1,298.8 after this year’s gain.

Taxable valuation in the district is up 1.1 percent, Christensen said.

The meeting Wednesday opened with another personnel issue — one which the board would neither confirm nor deny.

Heather Hinote, wife of varsity boys basketball coach Jeramie Hinote, appeared before the board during open forum to question what she said was her husband’s dismissal from his coaching job.

Christensen said no action had been taken. Board members said they either were unaware of the situation or else had only heard of an evaluation taking place.
“So what you’re saying,” said Catherine Wilson, who was among the supporters of Hinote at the meeting, “is the board has not been notified of the firing of Jeramie Hinote?”

Heather Hinote called her husband’s alleged dismissal a “personal attack on him.”

“I don’t know if we can talk about a particular employee in an open meeting,” board member Teresa Hagen said, explaining the board’s policy of not engaging with the public during open forum.

In other business:

• The board approved the parameters of a new scholarship, the Dixon Scholarship, the result of a $600,000 gift to the district.

Scholarships will be awarded annually to 15 students at $2,000 per scholarship. All students will be eligible.

• The board directed Christensen to continue conversations with the county board of supervisors about possibly buying the former National Guard armory to serve as a new bus barn.

The district’s current lease with the Greene County Fair Board is coming due, Christensen said, but it could be more economical for the district to have its own building.

Construction of a brand new building could run the district $200,000, said McConnell, a contractor.

The fair board wants a decision by May in order to proceed with plans for a new cattle barn — the design hinges on whether the district wants to still park its buses at the fairgrounds.

The district has rented space at the fairgrounds for more than 25 years.

“Absolutely nothing against the fair board,” McConnell said, “but it comes down to numbers.”

• The board gave approval to share its curriculum director one day per week with Southeast Webster-Grand, and its media specialist one day per month with Ogden.

• The board unanimously approved the purchase of 250 new Chromebooks for the high school from the 1-cent sales tax fund at a cost of $65,937, but not before a spirited discussion about whether Chromebooks are the right device.

“My kids who were students thought they sucked,” McConnell said.