This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

Richfield School District to Cut Teachers, Increase Class Sizes

Richfield School Board plans to cut teachers and other school workers in order to balance the districts budget.

Due to a loss in state funding, the is expecting a $1.1 million reduction in its budget for next year, which will result in a cut in teachers, Superintendent Bob Slotterback announced at the school board's Tuesday night meeting.

The district , according to Slotterback, and will now need to reduce personnel.

"This positions us to be able to effectively bring proposed cuts into next year's spending [so we are] able to balance our budget," Slotterback said.

Find out what's happening in Richfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In anticipation of this measure, the school board approved an adjustment in class-size targets, which Slotterback said would give district principals a sense about the number of teachers they will have to reduce.

The board is expected to receive a list of positions that are recommended for position reductions at its meeting on March 7. At that time, the board expects it will place individuals on an unrequested leave of absence. The unrequested leave of absence is proposed to take place in April with probationary terminations occurring before June 1.

Find out what's happening in Richfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Slotterback said the result of the class-size target could mean that about 17 FTE, or full-time equivalent, teaching positions could be reduced. The total class size increase is undetermined at this point.

Further, reductions in other non-teaching departments will also be necessary, Slotterback said.

"If we make this change it is going to affect the student experience," Todd Nollenberger, director of the Richfield School Board, though he did not disagree with the measure.

Slotterback said the increase in class size will probably be the trend for the next two to four years in the district.

In other business, the Richfield Public School District's quarterly financial report was also presented by Jason Mutzenberger, supervisor of financial services for the district. The report indicated a significant shift in funding as well as some unexpected costs, which resulted in the loss of about $50,000.

Mutzenberger will be presenting a revised budget next month.

Also during the meeting, the board heard an update on the activities of a number of career education programs in the district, approved a general disbursement in the amount of $529, 030 and excepted multiple donations from various local organizations.

The will be held at 7 p.m. on March 7 at Richfield Public School district office.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?