School systems rehire some teachers

Catawba County's three school systems cut hundreds of teacher and teacher assistant positions in June.

This month, they rehired several dozen.

Now that the Legislature has passed North Carolina's budget, school districts know how much money they will receive and can make plans for the school year.

Hickory Public Schools initially laid off 32 teachers, said Superintendent Lillie Cox.

"We rehired all teaching positions, except five," Cox said. "We looked at class sizes, greatest need and teachers' licensure when rehiring. The teacher positions are in all grades, not just elementary."

As far as which teachers were rehired, Cox said it was up to the principals.

Hickory Public Schools waited on the Legislature to pass its budget before it cut any teacher assistant positions. Cox said she now doesn't think the school system will have to cut any.

"All (teacher assistant) positions will remain for this year, as of right now," she said.

Classified staff positions, as well as maintenance and custodian positions, are still frozen by the state and cannot be refilled, Cox said.

Newton-Conover City Schools initially cut 13 teaching positions, four of who were employees who had retired from the system and were rehired. Four other employees either resigned, retired or left the system for other reasons.

Of the remaining five teachers who were laid off, three were rehired, said Barry Redmond, superintendent for Newton-Conover City Schools.

"We hired back everyone but a middle school social studies teacher," he said. "The other position was a high school English teacher, who had found another job, so we did not offer the position."

None of the 10 teacher assistants who were laid off will be coming back, Redmond said, but his goal is to get them back into positions as soon as he can.

Most of the money being used to pay for the three teachers is coming from federal Title I money and additional exceptional children money, which has allowed the school system to shift some money around.

The three returning teachers are each going to the elementary schools in the district to help reduce class size.

"The governor wants to brag she didn't raise class sizes or cut TA (teacher assistant) positions, but she cut $426,000 in discretionary funding from us," Redmond said. "We have to tell the state in September where that money will come from."

With funding already cut in textbooks, administration staff development and transportation, Redmond said he will be hard-pressed to figure out where the cuts will come from.

Every school district in the state is required to revert discretionary funds back to the state.

However, Redmond said the teachers are secure.

"Everyone we've got in place should be safe, they don't need to worry," he said.

Catawba County Schools, as the largest school system in the county, had to make the most cuts. It initially cut 69 teachers and 113 teacher assistants. The school system has hired a few teachers to fill positions of those who have left the system unexpectedly, resigned or for other reasons, said Pat Hensley, assistant superintendent of human resources.

In light of the state budget, the school system rehired 17 teachers and 16 teacher assistants. All of the teachers will serve in kindergarten through third grades.

"We'd initially adjusted our positions for an increase of two students per grade level, because that was what was talked about in the state budget for so long," Hensley said. "But then, they did nothing about it. We applied the increased ratio across the district, because we thought that was the worst-case scenario. We realized, after they passed the budget, they would hold us to the old rules of class sizes."

Those "old rules" state that kindergarten through third grade must have an average class size of less than 21 children per class.

This allowed Catawba County Schools to rehire additional teachers and teacher assistants, Hensley said, although it was difficult narrowing down who would be selected. With 16 elementary schools, she said each elementary school got to select its own teacher assistant.

"We kept a tally of who was working last year and lost jobs, and each school got to pick a TA," she said. "We were looking for TAs with the strongest performance in areas of instruction, those with the most to offer and the most experience."

The 17 teachers are scattered across the elementary schools, although four schools did not get any of the rehires because of their enrollment numbers, Hensley said.

"We want to see where one additional person will make the most difference," she said. "We've been trying to be equitable in our practice."